Tea for Two
by Tiggipi
Summary: Prince and Gui are busy preparing for their band's next concert, but Gui has other matters on his mind — GuixPrince/Gui WenxLan -UNDER REVISION-
1. Tea in the Tower

_**Disclaimer –** __½_ Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo

_**Note **__**–**_ This is the first fan fic I've ever written! Back in mid-late '09 or so when I barely even knew what this website was, and the story just sat around on my computer. I finally got up the courage to upload it onto here over a year later_…_ :P It's really rough, and needs a lot of revision, buuuut_…_

_****__4/3/11 - I'm considering going back through this and expanding the story when I have time and ideas (as well as fixing the countless grammatical errors, and revising what's already here). _

_****__The story is so rushed, stuff just sort of happened and there was barely any development (if any x-x). Not that I noticed while I was writing (it's over a year's worth of work, it seemed like__****__ a really long story at the time. xD) _

___****__So, if it's suddenly updated, though it's 'complete' already, you'll know what's going on. I make no guesses as to when this will take place, and how much I'll write__…_  


* * *

Min Gui Wen quickly strode down the long, deserted hallway in the literature department building at X University. He only had a minute or so until the late afternoon class let out, and was determined to get to his office before that happened. Turning at the hall's end, he ascended a staircase as quickly as he could without tripping. Hurrying down the last stretch of hallway, he clumsily yanked his key card out of his pocket, listening to the ringing noise signaling the end of the lectures. Stabbing his key into his office door, he flung it open when he heard footsteps approaching, and shut it again behind himself, locking it securely. _Safe!_

It was a race every single day to find somewhere quiet Gui Wen could go to work on the music for the Infinite City Band. Having dropped little rumors that he'd gone home already, perhaps no one would bother him in his office. All of those distracting students, who should have asked him their questions when class let out, and instead annoyingly track him down hours and hours later when he was already busy with something else. He used to work in his classroom after his lectures, but he was far too exposed in there. Home was out of the question. Whenever he was there, he was distracted by the sweet pull of his Second Life headset which was far too tempting. Hiding out in his office seemed a good place. As long as he ignored any knocking—rude of him, but it let him work in peace, away from the noisy students.

_Especially those girl students,_ Gui Wen thought to himself as dropped his bag beside his desk. _They never take a hint to leave me be. Being too handsome is troublesome. I understand all too well why Prince always has his Masquerade mask on hand for emergencies…_

A silly grin that he would never be caught wearing, unless he was in-game, spread across Gui Wen's face as he pictured himself chasing Prince around, not very unlike the hoards of fans that disrupted their time in-game. Though, unlike the fans, Gui Wen knew where to draw the line, not that he didn't put a few toes over said line every now and again. _His reactions are so entertaining…_

Gui Wen seated himself neatly in front of his desk. He leaned over slightly and pulled open his bag with one hand. After rummaging around for a moment, his hand closed on a thick book and some loose papers. He arranged them on top of the desk, and flipped open the book to a chapter on guitar sheet music. Pulling a pen out of his pocket, he started humming to himself as he carefully but quickly drew music notes on a blank sheet of paper, glancing periodically at the book and an already-completed sheet of music in front of him.

Even though he had never written music before in his life prior to the Second Life concerts, Gui Wen thanked his high IQ to guide him through the complicated process. As difficult as it was for the rest of his team—not to mention everyone else in Second Life—to believe, he was actually very intelligent. The simple matter was that he chose to act as a ridiculous person in-game. He saw no point in playing if he behaved the exact same way he did in real life. The world of Second Life allowed him the chance to create a completely new person out of the pieces of his personality he had hidden away under his mask of a polite and composed university professor. Only in-game, and from time-to-time in his classroom when the energy of his students was most infectious, did he unleash himself from his restraints.

An hour passed and Gui Wen decided to take a short break. The previously blank paper that sat in front of him had small black musical notes all down it in tidy rows. He quickly scribbled the name "Fairsky" across the top, and set his pen down on top of the book. His knuckles crackled noisily as he flexed his cramped fingers. He leaned back in the chair and stretched his arms over his head as he let out a yawn. Glancing at his watch, he noted that it was a quarter to five, almost time for him to head home for a quick dinner before grading students' papers, taking a shower, and then logging into Second Life.

He closed his eyes for a moment and thought of how much he and his teammates had progressed over the past few weeks in their musical ability. They had never even mentioned music before until it was spontaneously decided that they had to make money to gain back what Prince had spent on his accidental trip to the Eastern Continent. Gui Wen still felt a twinge of anger toward Yu Lian for being so difficult when it came to the money the team had. If they had sent Prince the five thousand crystal coins for the return trip, Fan never would have torn up the city as he did. _Well, maybe he would have torn it up either way, but I still would have seen Prince sooner._

Wiping the smirk off his face, he sat up straight again, and picked up the pen. He twirled it once between his long fingers, and then pulled a fresh sheet of paper toward himself.

That evening, Gui Wen placed his game headset over his eyes and arranged himself into a comfortable position underneath his fluffy blankets. As his breathing slowed down and his eyes closed, he dropped off to sleep and his bedroom faded out of his sight to be replaced by the noisy town square of Infinite City as it appeared before him. The sunlit square was rather hot, dusty, and filled with players busily walking past and chatting amongst themselves. Other people were materializing out of thin air around him as they logged in for their nightly game time. Ignoring those unimportant people, Gui scanned the crowd, quickly searching for any of his teammates, and spotted a familiar figure a few yards away, surrounded by a large group of players composed mostly of women.

Gui switched on his in-game personality as the corners of his mouth automatically turned upward.

"YOUR MOST _ROYAL_ HIGHNESS!" His yell echoed across the square and earned him more than a few looks of surprise from the players around him. He ignored them as he bodily launched himself across the cobblestone street causing people to jump out of his way in alarm. His long black hair and cloak flew out behind him, flapping in the wind as he ran through the crowd toward the figure of Prince who quickly turned around with inhuman speed to face the onslaught of Gui's smothering love with a raised fist.

**"GUILIASTES -150 HP!"**

A few moments later, Gui found himself on the ground with a large lump forming on his cheek where his face had met Prince's mail-covered fist. Looking up to where Prince stood over him, Gui could see that he was wearing a cruel smile of satisfaction, red eyes narrowing dangerously as he readjusted the glove on his hand. The sunlight glinted off Prince's white hair making it shimmer like the purest snow. His red Blood Tiara poked through his wind-swept bangs and contrasted nicely with his fair complexion. He had put aside his expensive set of armor that the team had bought him in congratulations for becoming the city lord, and donned his casual black outfit in a futile attempt to be less eye-catching. On the top of Prince's head, looking very strange and out of place, was a large, white meat bun which was smiling and rapidly blinking his large eyes as he bounced around, excited to see Gui appear.

"Hello, Gui," Prince smoothly greeted in an annoyed tone as he looked down to examine how effective his punch had been. "It's about time you got here."

Gui snapped back to attention and rubbed his cheek. "You are as amazingly strong as ever, your wonderful Highness, Prince," he complimented energetically as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Your breath-taking poise as you drew your–" As he looked up, his smile of delight at seeing Prince quickly turned into a look of disgust as he saw the loathsome person standing beside him. Gui's glare was quickly returned with enthusiasm by Wicked.

"Gui-Gui!" yelled Meatbun in his high-pitched voice as he bounced happily up and down on Prince's head. Prince's face showed no sign that he felt the repeated impact of the bun hitting him. Prince had long-since resigned himself to the fact that Meatbun regarded the top of Prince's head as his exclusive seat. "Where is Fire Birdy?"

"Ah, just a minute." Gui broke his silent, yet very ferocious staring match with Wicked to rummage around in his pack, and pulled out his phoenix egg. After holding it in his hand a moment, a bright flash of light suddenly engulfed the egg—as well as most of Gui's arm—and the phoenix appeared out of the flames, and gracefully landed on Gui's wrist.

"Fire Birdy!" gleefully squealed Meatbun as he hopped off Prince's head, onto the phoenix's back, and happily snuggled into her warm, red feathers. "Fly, Birdy!"

The phoenix nodded in an amused way, "Alright, Meatbun." They took off together from their perch on Gui's arm, and flew in wide circles over the heads of their masters, ignoring the stares of confusion from random passerby—a normal occurrence around Gui and his friends.

"Sunshine, could you watch those two for us?" Prince asked. Sunshine, who'd been standing off to one side with Kenshin, nodded and smiled, his bright green eyes glinting energetically at the thought of having something to do besides wandering from shop to shop, drinking tea until Prince came to retrieve him.

"Where are you going, Prince?" he asked curiously.

"To practice singing," Prince replied in a weary voice. Gui wondered how many other questions Sunshine had already asked this evening. Sunshine was well known throughout Prince's close circle of companions as a person whose insatiable curiosity had the potential to drive even the most patient and kind-hearted person to contemplate murder. Fairsky seemed to be the only exception so far.

"Why do you need to practice singing? You're very good at it already!" Sunshine declared, looking at Prince eagerly.

One of Prince's eyelids twitched as he stared at the Sunshine's beaming face. "Because I do," he answered bluntly and gestured toward the phoenix and meat bun who were flying above them, noisily singing to one another. "Go ahead and let them fly around outside the city if they want. Follow on your carpet, just keep them in sight. Ah, and take these with you." Prince felt around in his pack for a moment and withdrew a small cloth bag. "They're meat buns for Meatbun if he gets hungry," he explained as Sunshine opened his mouth to ask.

Sunshine nodded with a suddenly serious face as he took the bag, tied it securely onto his belt, and whipped his large golden rug out of nowhere. Prince stepped back hastily as Sunshine enthusiastically shook it out, almost whacking the people standing nearby, who hadn't gotten out of the way in time. Letting go of it suddenly, the carpet hovered in the air instead of falling to the ground. Sunshine nimbly hopped on top of it and sat down cross-legged as he twisted back his pale hair to keep it out of the way while flying.

"Kenshin," Prince muttered. "Go with him and make sure he doesn't lose them, or let them get eaten by something…"

Kenshin brushed his long red hair off his shoulder and silently inclined his head in acknowledgment to Prince's request. He pulled a katana out of his belt and jumped onto the carpet behind Sunshine and settled down, laying the sword in his lap and arranging his red robes around his newbie armor that Prince had given him. He stared pointedly away from Sunshine as the bombardment of endless questions started as they flew away.

"Your pets sure are something, Prince," Wicked observed quietly as he watched all four of the pets go flying toward the city walls, Sunshine still animatedly asking questions to the annoyed-looking Kenshin, who was fingering the guard of his sword in a contemplative way.

"So people have told me. See you later," Prince said with a small chuckle. Gui gritted his teeth as Prince patted Wicked on the shoulder and strode past him. "Come on Gui, we have to practice that song."

"Yes, Your Highness," Gui forced out, and tried to stop glaring.

Wicked sent one last look of hate at Gui and reluctantly turned away to attend to his teammates gathering nearby.

Prince led Gui away from the square toward the center of town. Various occupants of Infinite City called greetings to Prince, who had slipped into his facade of the merciless Blood Elf and was sending them all sparkling smiles in return, but quickened his pace to avoid any approaches. Even so, many people started to gather behind and chased after them. Prince darted into an alleyway, and Gui followed closely behind giving Prince random, useless advice on how to escape stalkers which mostly involved Gui heroically rescuing Prince in some way or another.

After a few minutes of taking shortcuts and some carefully-planned hidden escape routes, they lost the pursuers and reached the tower in the middle of town. The only place where Prince and Gui could practice uninterrupted by the mobs of fans was in Prince's own rooms, which, next to the tower's crystal, had the highest level of security.

Prince swung open the tall wooden double doors to the entrance of the tower, and allowed Gui to step through before he shut them again with a dull thud. The air inside was considerably cooler than the warmth outside. The difference in lighting made Gui stop to blink a few times before his eyes adjusted to the dimness. The round room was richly decorated with thick rugs, tapestries, large potted plants, and small squashy-looking chairs. Several players who were seated around the room looked up and waved heartily as they greeted the pair when they entered. Prince smiled and airily returned their greetings.

Footsteps quietly echoed through the tower as Gui followed Prince up the twisting staircase toward his rooms above the office area. The low buzz of conversation could be heard from the room below as people looked up and pointed at the eye-catching duo.

"Second Life needs elevators," mumbled Prince, seemingly more to himself than Gui.

"Your Highness, if the stairs are too difficult, please allow me to carry you up the rest," Gui offered, already knowing the response he would get.

Prince glanced back at Gui and gave him a disbelieving look before speeding up his ascension, leaving Gui a few steps down with his arms outstretched in a hopeful pose. "Yeah, right."

Gui lowered his arms with a sigh and inwardly laughed to himself as he followed Prince, feeling somewhat relieved that he hadn't been kicked down the stairs, as had happened in the past on more than one occasion.

Stopping at the first landing, Prince turned to a thick, reinforced door. Prince pulled a key out of his pouch and twisted it in the door's lock. He quickly yanked the heavy door open wide enough so they could both squeeze through, and they entered the outer chamber of Prince's living space. The smooth, polished dark wood floor glinted in the light that came in through the doorway before Prince shut and locked the door behind them. He unzipped his black jacket and shrugged it off to place it on the coat rack beside them before removing his gloves. Bending over, he unbuckled his boots and slipped his feet out of them with a satisfied sigh. He stepped quietly past Gui and passed through the elegantly-carved door frame.

Pausing to compose himself, Gui watched as Prince disappeared around the deep red curtains framing the doorway. Gui always felt extremely jittery every time he visited, though usually he was with the rest of the Odd Squad. Instead of using a conference room downstairs, where they were frequently interrupted for ridiculous reasons by other players, they hid out up here where they could relax and discuss things without any outside interference. Being alone with Prince only made Gui's already maimed nerves shred even further.

"Hurry up and get in here," called Prince from the other room. "We have other things to do after practice, and you're being really slow."

"Yes, sorry. I'm coming," Gui answered hastily as he slipped off his thick cloak and soft purple slippers, and straightened his sleeves before shakily entering the main room. The air was filled with the spicy scent of cinnamon from a censer near Prince's bed, and Gui inhaled it deeply as he stepped lightly across the wood floor and seated himself across from Prince on one of the a squashy cushions surrounding the low, round table in the middle of the decorative room. Prince fiddled with a gray tea set on top of the table.

Gui leaned over the table and rested his chin on one hand, running his eyes over the platter of wrapped dumplings and the tea before returning his focus to Prince. "What are you making?"

"Dong Fang Mei Ren," Prince answered, carefully scooping spoonfuls of dark purple tea leaves into two small teacups. He picked up his teapot and poured hot water into each cup, and passed one to Gui after setting the pot down on the table again. The water in the cups slowly turned orange, and a sweet, fruity scent mingled with the cinnamon in the air. Prince reached over the table and took a dumpling from the platter, and started to unwrap its bamboo leaf covering.

"Help yourself." He quickly gestured with one hand to the platter as he bit hungrily into the sweet rice and bean paste of the dumpling. It only took a few moments before he picked up another and started unwrapping it, staring into space with an expression that was bordering on bliss.

"Thank you, your Highness," Gui said quietly, smiling at Prince as he took a dumpling from the platter as well and started to unwrap it. "What are we practicing today?"

Prince silently thought for a moment as he chewed on yet another dumpling and swallowed. "I think only the one song that yesterday you said needed work. Everything else that'll be included in the performance we've already done tons of times, so we only need to go over those with everyone else during rehearsal."

"Oh." Gui looked down at his seeping tea with increasing disappointment that they would only be working on one. With as talented as Prince was, it wasn't really surprising, but he'd still been hoping for more. Then again, no matter how much time he spent with Prince, it never felt like enough. Other than these practice sessions, he was never given the opportunity to be alone with Prince. They both had duties to attend to separately throughout the city, after all. Anyway, no matter if they were together in a meeting, walking around town, or even in the middle of a crowd of monsters, there was always someone else with Prince, whether a pet, a friend, or a fan.

Gui finished his dumpling and started to sip at his tea, trying not to feel sulky. "This tea is good."

"Yeah, I discovered it in a shop in town a few days ago while I was walking around with Jing and Yun while they got writing supplies," Prince explained thickly as he downed the last of his fourth dumpling and took a drink of the tea. "The owner of the shop says he goes around picking leaves and things for tea while grinding mobs, fixes the leaves up in his shop and then sells them. This one had a nice scent to it."

"I'll have to go with you sometime to see this shop," Gui said as he swirled the last of his tea around in the bottom of the cup and then hesitatingly drank it, silently hoping that the shop owner didn't pick leaves that had pieces of dead monster or blood splattered on them. The things he ate and drank in Second Life wouldn't effect his real body, but that didn't make revolting things any less revolting.

Prince stared woefully at the empty platter and pile of creased bamboo leaves in front of him for a moment before sighing, "Okay, time for practice." He unfolded himself and stood in one fluid motion, stepping lightly over to the cluttered desk near the door they'd come in. He shuffled through the papers, trying not to upset any of the stacks while he looked for his sheets of music.

"I hope the band meeting goes quickly," he continued as he sifted through the paper. "I want to go kill mobs afterward with Kenshin and Sunshine. Lolidragon better not force me to bring a bunch of useless baggage. I can handle myself just fine…" His voice trailed off and he started muttering to himself. Gui continued to listen, but could only make out words that sounded like "stalker" and "tree".

"Ah, here it is." Prince pulled a paper out of the pile with a flourish and stepped back toward the round table. "I'll sing it through once."

"I'm sure your Highness' singing will be perfect as always," Gui replied with a glittery smile, trying not to feel irritated at Prince's pets getting to train with him alone. They may have only been NPC's, but to Gui, they were men and rivals for Prince's attention. However, since Gui had to check in with Infinite City's design team and supervise the city's fortifications afterward, he had no time to go with Prince and keep the two at a safe distance from his beloved.

Gui quickly attempted to remember everything he was supposed to oversee that day in a futile attempt to rearrange his schedule, allowing him time to go with them. His forehead got increasingly scrunched up with each new task he mentally listed.

"Gui? Gui…? GUI!" Prince suddenly clobbered Gui with his fist. "Stop day dreaming, and pay attention!"

"I am paying attention, your Highness," Gui assured softly, rubbing the new bump on his head and returning his focus to Prince.

"You better be, these concerts are really important," Prince huffed as he ran his eyes over the paper in his hand while muttering about how Yu Lian would murder them several times if they didn't perform according to her expectations. Knowing Yu Lian's terrifying reputation for ruthlessness, Gui didn't doubt Prince's worries. "Okay, here goes."

Prince started singing, and Gui closed his eyes, leaning back on the cushion and placing his palms on the cool, smooth surface of the floor behind him. _What a wonderful sound… _Dreamily staring at the ceiling, Gui immersed himself in the elf's voice.

But it was over all too soon. Prince cleared his throat and promptly asked, "Well, any suggestions?"

Gui took a breath and blinked a few times, "Ah, well, I think you sang it a little too quickly. Slow down a little bit, and it will be fine."

Prince nodded and walked back to the desk to make a note on the paper with the fountain pen that was nearly buried in the heaps of paper that he had shifted around in his search for the music. Gui watched, nearly in a trance, as Prince lifted his hand and tucked a lock of his silky hair behind one of his delicately pointed ears. There were few things Gui enjoyed looking at more than Prince's ethereally beautiful face, but he also was very careful to watch for opportunities when Prince had his back turned and wouldn't notice Gui's blatant staring.

The urge to touch Prince's soft hair grew with each moment as Gui continued to watch him. He lowered his gaze to Prince's graceful neck, down his thin yet powerful arms, and over his slender back, until a tiny cautionary voice somewhere in Gui's head made him look away as his face began to burn. After a few moments in which he once again spent regaining his composure, Gui straightened and stood up slowly. He rubbed his back slightly and walked over to the window to look outside. "You have a nice view out this window," he commented randomly, staring at the rooftops of the buildings stretching out around the tower. _Nice going. That wasn't lame at all. Of all the things to pick for a conversation…_

Prince made a noise of agreement from behind him, sounding as though he'd barely heard the remark.

Movement on the horizon caught Gui's attention. Staring at it for a moment, he realized that it was Sunshine and Kenshin flying around on the magic carpet. They were zooming up and down as if the carpet were on a roller coaster track. Gui felt extremely grateful that Sunshine had not done that the few times he'd been riding on it.

"Hey, I see…" Gui paused mid-sentence as he watched the carpet attempt to loop upside down, which caused one of the passengers to fall off. A faint yell of terror echoed through the air. He quickly turned away from the window and put a hand on his forehead. _Whatever the hell they're doing now, I don't even want to know…_

"See what?" Prince questioned.

Gui cleared his throat. "Um, never mind." He paused a moment and watched Prince study the music. Aside from the last practice they would have alone together the following evening, Gui knew he probably wouldn't get another opportunity for a long time to speak with Prince alone. He took a steadying breath and called, "Your Highness?"

"What is it?" Prince responded distractedly.

"Are things okay? I mean, outside of the game. I know the paparazzi is still going wild over our concerts, and Wicked told me a while ago that you hadn't been found yet, but I still… worry about you…"

"I'm fine. They haven't found me, and I am confident that they aren't going to. I've taken precautions and also I doubt they would ever suspect a person like me to be Prince."

Gui looked over his shoulder with surprise at Prince who noticeably flinched as if realizing that he had just said something he hadn't meant to, "Why wouldn't they?"

Prince stopped writing on the paper and straightened up to face Gui with a guarded expression. "I have my reasons for knowing they won't."

"But you can never know for sure, the media can be very resourceful and-"

"They aren't going to find me out. Stop worrying." Prince bit his lower lip and went back to writing on the paper with an annoyed look on his slightly flushed face.

"Why do you do that?" Gui asked, feeling hurt at Prince's constantly defensive replies.

"Do what?"

"You never let me help you. You always tell me to leave you alone, you never tell me if you're worried or if you're in trouble. I just want to protect you."

"I don't need your protection. I told you, I have-"

"Your reasons? Well, why can't you tell me? You tell everything to that damn Wicked, but you never speak to me about anything. For as long as we've been friends, you've never confided in me at all," Prince looked up in alarm as Gui continued with increasing anger in his voice. Gui couldn't blame him for being surprised, since Gui rarely got angry, and it was never directed toward Prince. But Prince's cryptic answers were taking their toll on Gui's patience. "You even talk to Lolidragon about your problems, but you never come to me with anything! I hate that you keep me in the dark."

"Gui," Prince returned the pen to its base and took a breath. "I just… It isn't that I wanted to keep you in the dark. I don't want to trouble anyone else with my problems than is necessary."

"Is that to avoid troubling the people around you, or to protect yourself?" Gui asked heatedly as he crossed his arms. _Damn it, why am I yelling at him?_

Prince's eyes widened and they flashed angrily. Gui could almost see his temper rising with his bare eyes, and immediately regretted saying anything in the first place.

"Stop talking as if you understand everything," Prince snapped, causing Gui to take a step back. "I don't go around telling everyone about my problems because I don't want to cause even more. If I confided in you, or anyone else on the team, that would only draw other people further into this nightmare with the damn media. You're already bothered enough for simply being on the same team as I am."

"Prince," Gui sighed, calming down slightly. "I never have, and never will think of you confiding in me as a problem. To be honest, I couldn't care less if the media tried to bother me even more than they already have. They may be annoying, but it isn't like my life is hell just because they're there. In a way, I'd be happy if they interrogated me based off the fact that I'm close to you…" Gui ended softly, and he turned back toward the window.

Prince walked away from the messy desk and sat on the edge of his bed, sinking slightly into the mounds of blankets. Rubbing his temples, he closed his eyes and fell backward with a soft plop. "You may think that way, but I still don't want to cause you trouble. That would only make me worry about your situation at school more."

"My situation?" Gui looked at him suspiciously. "You mean the press hanging around outside the classroom? How do you know about that?"

Prince abruptly opened his eyes, looking horrified. "Ah, well, um… I don't."

"You know," Gui said quietly as he paced over to the bed, shifted some pillows out of his way and sat down next to Prince's rigid form. "I asked you before, months ago, if you were a student at the university I work at. You denied it," he turned to Prince. "Yet now you know what only someone who attends my lectures would know."

Prince turned his head away from Gui and closed his eyes defiantly as strain distorted his features.

"Did you lie to me?"

"I don't want-"

Gui suddenly stood up and took a few steps away, cutting off Prince's sentence. He turned and watched Prince sit up. He slowly unclenched his fists, trying to beat down the frustrated screams that he wanted to let loose. After a moment, he smiled sadly and looked away from Prince's cautious face. "I know. You don't want to tell me, right? I guess Wicked is enough for you that you don't need me."

"It isn't like that," Prince whispered.

"Then what is it like?" Gui asked, starting to tremble slightly as he fought back the rising hysteria that was threatening to boil over.

"W-Wicked doesn't… he doesn't know about me because I wanted him to," Prince said slowly, his voice rising as he glowered upward at Gui. "He found out on his own. I didn't mean for it to happen, I don't tell him everything like you seem to think." He gave a shaky breath and continued, "You're a very important person to me, so don't think so lightly that I don't care. And it is because you're important that I don't want you to know who I am."

"I already told you, I can handle the media," Gui grumbled.

"No. I mean…" Prince lowered his head. "Would you believe me if I said…" he said and paused a moment as he stared at the floor. "If I said that I didn't want to tell you because I'm afraid… your feelings toward me might change?"

Gui slowly blinked his purple eyes and brushed some hair out of his face. Whatever he had been expecting as a reason, it hadn't been that. He looked away for a moment, feeling ashamed that he lost his temper. "That would never happen. Prince, I love you no matter who you are. I've told you before. Why do you not trust me?" He returned to Prince's side and grasped his hands. "I promised you…"

Prince's hands tightened momentarily around Gui's grip, but then fell slack. He slowly looked up and met Gui's gaze steadily. His breathing slowed down and returned to normal. He slowly pulled his hands away from Gui and rubbed his eyes. Standing up, he went to the front room, scooping up his sheet of music as he passed by the desk. Gui stared at the spot where Prince had been sitting, listening to the rustling noises of Prince putting on his jacket and boots.

"I need to think things over," Prince said quietly from the doorway. "I'm going to head to the meeting, I'll leave the key here on the table. Please lock the door when you leave."

Gui nodded silently and heard Prince set down the key, and then leave, slowly shutting the door behind himself. Once Gui couldn't hear Prince's footsteps any longer, he sighed deeply and swore at himself furiously. He stood up and rubbed his face with one hand, he stopped a moment to close the window and lock it, then strode into the front room. Pulling on his cloak, he stepped into his slippers and picked up the key and heavy lock, and then left the room in silent anger.


	2. Playing Hooky

_**Disclaimer** - 1/2 Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo._

* * *

Feng Lan slowly opened her brown eyes with a groan as she waved her arm around looking for the alarm clock that was blaring in her ear. Her fingers hit the off button and the insistent beeping stopped, leaving a faint ringing sound in their wake. She sat up in bed and lifted the game headset off, clearing her line of vision. _Last night was a disaster..._ she thought to herself as she swung her legs out of bed and pressed her bare feet onto the cold floor. _I miss the days when sleep was actually restful._

After she'd left Gui in her room, she'd headed downstairs to meet with the rest of the band, as well as the members of the Odd Squad who were involved with the band management. Several of them had already began to congregate in the appointed conference room. Only minutes after she'd seated herself, Gui slipped silently in, his face blank. He sat down without a word and avoided looking at her the entire time, whether it was out of anger, resignation, or some other reason, she didn't know. The meeting went smoothly, regardless of the tension between the two. They only had one delay, when Kenshin had a very sudden and unbecoming outburst of anger at Sunshine who had apparently attempted to display some aerial acrobatics with his flying carpet to impress Kenshin. Rather than being impressed by Sunshine's flying skills, he'd fallen off and landed in the middle of a large group of powerful and aggressive monsters.

After separating the two pets and quieting them down, the meeting slowly wound to an end. Everyone had filtered out of the room to attend to any last minute business before starting their regular training schedules. Deciding it was best that she didn't go with both Kenshin and Sunshine to kill monsters, she'd left Sunshine in Fairsky's care and took Kenshin out for a walk around the town to try to cool him off. After Sunshine was out of Kenshin's line of sight, he calmed down almost immediately. Though, with his face that was, more frequently than not, devoid of all emotion, it was slightly hard to tell.

As they'd wandered through the streets, Gui's furious face kept flashing through Prince's mind. _What was I supposed to think? He's always prancing around like a moron, and never mentioned any of this to me before... The idiot. _She and Kenshin eventually had made their way out of the city to kill whatever they happened across. She was grateful for at least that much of a distraction.

Sighing sleepily, Lan rubbed her eyes for a moment and wondered vaguely if anyone had sent out a search party since she hadn't told anyone but Gui that she'd been planning on leaving. They'd done it before on several occasions when no one could find her. It made her feel like her team was composed of a band of stalkers rather than friends. And the group was only growing bigger in numbers as more people joined up with Infinite City's populace on a near daily basis. _Lolidragon doesn't even let me go around the city by myself anymore... Hormone crazed-_

A loud banging on her bedroom door caused her to snap to attention and stand up, swaying on her feet slightly as she stepped across the room.

"What!" she yelled at the door, feeling her temper rising as she opened it a few inches and looked out to find her younger twin brother, Feng Yang Ming, standing outside her room, still in his pajamas, looking rather pathetic and disheveled.

"I'm hungry," he answered in a weak voice. He was wearing a distraught expression that he only wore on when he wanted something. "Make me breakfast!"

Lan narrowed her eyes at him and shut the door in his face.

"Sis!" he yelled from the hallway and started hitting her door again, forgetting to act weak from hunger.

"Stop!" she yelled, rummaging around in her dresser for some clothing. "Why can't you ever make your own breakfast, lazy idiot?" She forcefully yanked off her pajamas and quickly dressed in clean clothes.

"Hurry, Sis!" Yang Ming whined as a loud growling from his stomach rumbled through the air. She rolled her eyes.

Lan brushed her hair and pulled it back out of the way into a ponytail. _I swear, you idiot brother, I'm going to tear your liver out tonight if you don't shut up..._

Half an hour and several pieces of toast later, Lan cautiously pushed through a large group of noisily chattering reporters who never seemed to leave in the hallway of the university and entered the classroom of her literature class, followed closely by Yang Ming and Zhuo Ling Bin whom they met on the bus on the way to the university. Lan nervously glanced at the desk at the front of the room and saw Gui there, bent over a paper with a concentrated look on his face. He looked up for a moment with a tired smile and waved at the trio as they entered.

"Good morning," he looked back down at his desk and pulled the attendance sheet out from under a pile, and made three marks on it.

"Good morning, Professor Min," the twins said in unison while Ling Bin simply nodded, looking annoyed at having to see Gui so early in the morning.

Lan wended through the neat rows of desks and sat down in her usual spot, setting her bag down on top and avoiding any unnecessary glances toward the front of the room. Ling Bin sat behind the desk on her left and stretched his legs out. Yang Ming had stopped at Gui's desk and was chatting animatedly at him about the Second Life training he did the night before. Gui was nodding and politely commenting on Yang Ming's descriptions, but it was clear that he wanted to be left alone.

"Are you okay?" Ling Bin leaned over and set his hand on Lan's shoulder and looked at her with a worried expression.

"Hm?" Lan looked over at him for a moment before opening her bag and chuckling weakly. "I'm fine, I'll just be glad when this next concert is over."

"It'll be the last one in a while, won't it?"

"Yeah, finally," she sighed as she pulled out a notebook and pencil. "This last string of performances has been really stressful."

Ling Bin removed his hand from her shoulder and nodded briefly. After a moment of silence, he inclined his head toward the front of the room where Yang Ming was still talking. "He isn't being difficult for practice, right?"

Lan allowed herself a small look at Gui. His face had taken on a vacant look as he stared into space, making interested noises whenever Yang Ming paused. A few students walked through the classroom door and a relieved look washed over his features as they interrupted Yang Ming's rather violent reenactment of some fight from the night before.

_Even if I wanted to tell him I'm Prince, how the heck would I?_ She shifted in her chair, put her chin on her hand and stared at him. The students at his desk thinned out as they left to sit at their desks. Unfortunately for Gui, Yang Ming was not one of them.

"Xiao Lan?"

"Huh? Oh," Lan looked apologetically at Ling Bin. "He... isn't troubling me at all, practice has actually gone better because he is there. He has helpful comments."

"I see." He shot an agitated look at Gui and leaned back. "Since he acts so stupid, I though he would be a hindrance. I guess he does have some usefulness after all."

Lan shrugged noncommittally and waved a hand toward the front of the class where Jing and Yun had just appeared. They both greeted Gui briefly and hurried over to Lan.

"Good morning, Lan, Zhuo!" Yun smiled widely.

"Morning!" Jing greeted as she sat down behind the desk on Lan's right, while Yun took the one in front of her.

"Good morning," Ling Bin grinned at the pair.

Yang Ming darkly stalked up and sat down beside Ling Bin. He let loose a long sigh and started pulling his notebook out of his bag. "Why are people so inconsiderate? Interrupting my conversation with Professor Min..."

Lan stared at him blankly. "_You_ are actually asking that?"

"Huh?" he looked at her bewilderingly.

She shook her head at her twin and settled back in her seat to look toward the front of of the class where Gui was writing notes on the board. Ling Bin chuckled quietly and whispered something to Yang Ming.

"What?" Yang Ming suddenly squawked, drawing several student's attention to him. He leaned forward to get a better view of Lan around Ling Bin and pointed at her wildly. "I am _not_ inconsiderate!"

"Whatever you say..." she replied vaguely as she neatly copied the notes from the board into her notebook. _Moron._

He attempted to say something else, but was abruptly cut off when Gui called everyone's attention to the front so he could start his lecture. Lan absently chewed on the end of her mechanical pencil as he talked. She mulled over the options she had left after their argument the night before. On the one hand, it would be sort of relieving to be able to confide in Gui her real identity. Things would certainly be less stressful. However, Lan was still not convinced that Gui would see her in the same way if she told him that she was Prince. Knowing that Gui had a preference for men, Lan being a girl was problematic, to say the least.

_If I end up telling Gui who I am, does that mean I'll then have to tell the rest of the Odd Squad? Lolidragon has known this whole time and has never told anyone, but how quiet would Gui be about it?_ She started feeling slightly panicky, and groaned inwardly. _Why the heck did I ask to be a guy?_ She scribbled down a few more notes and stared hard at her notebook as if it would tell her the correct thing to do.

That evening as Lan slipped into bed, she hadn't gotten any closer to a decision. Reluctantly placing the game headset on, she frowned as her stomach twisted uncomfortably. _Why'd he have to bring this up now of all the times..._ Her eyes closed and the town square Infinite City suddenly appeared before her. Kenshin and Sunshine both stood at her side, having automatically been drawn to her once she logged in. Sunshine smiled at her happily and greeted her with more intensity than she'd been prepared for. Kenshin, still looking rather peevish about falling off Sunshine's carpet, stood silent off to one side, determinedly ignoring his fellow pet's chattering. Several people immediately approached Prince and greeted her excitedly. She nodded and smiled and scanned the sparsely populated area. Spotting Wicked a few yards away, she waved dismissively at the scattering of players and started toward him. Several sets of footsteps followed her. She ignored the urge to turn around and yell at the other players to go away. She had a reputation to keep up as the city lord, and screaming at everyone who annoyed her wouldn't do her image very much good.

"Hi, Wicked," she greeted, feeling slightly more relieved now that she had a larger defense force in case some of the more daring fans began to gather.

"Hi, Prince," he smiled at her warmly, his armor clanking noisily as he turned around.

"Hi... you..." she said vaguely when Wu Qing came into view as he stepped around Wicked with much more grace than he walked with in real life. If not for Wu Qing's unmistakable resemblance to his real self, Prince would have quite a bit of trouble believing that the handsome, gentlemanly person standing before her was actually her whiny twin who would probably die if not for her daily care. As sad of a thought as it was to admit, she was pretty impressed that he knew enough to not act like his usual childish self when in-game. The suave demeanor he settled into was much easier for her to deal with.

With a flick of his wrist, he gently waved his decorative fan at himself and a slight, teasing smile played at the corner of his mouth. The breeze he was creating wafted across his face and made strands of his long, brown hair lazily wave about in an attractive way. "Good evening, Prince."

_Never mind. He is just creepy._ She attempted to keep her face straight as she turned away from her brother's soppy look. Looking past all the random people staring in her direction – many of which were standing far too close for her to feel comfortable - Prince ran her sharp eyes over the crowd. Gui was nowhere in sight, and he usually logged in around when she did, if not sooner. No flash of bright purple clothing or rambunctious yelling, which were sure signs of Gui's whereabouts, caught her attention. She didn't particularly want to see him at the moment, but she wasn't going to stand him up for their last practice session together just because they'd had an argument.

For lack of anything better to do while she waited, she twisted around slightly and opened the top of the leather pouch attached to her belt. Large, moist-looking eyes stared back up at her. A warm, tasty smell began to fill the air. Without waiting for Prince to pull him out, Meatbun leapt out of the bag on his own, landing neatly on the top of her head where he proceeded to start his bouncing while squeakily shouting, "Mama!" over and over.

_I wonder if this is what it feels like to go through Chinese water torture..._ she thought as the bun clobbered her. Meatbun hardly weighed anything, but the incessant bouncing was starting to give her a headache. Trying to stay in one spot so Meatbun wouldn't fall off, she turned her head around again to do one last scan of the square. There was still no sign of the flamboyant bard.

**"Wicked,"** she called over the party chat. **"I'm going to go wait for Gui in the tea shop."** She'd learned a long time ago that if she was out in public, saying things like where she was going was a very bad idea. She'd already been yelled at several times by YuLian for causing extensive damage to various buildings – and sometimes people – when her fans got too rowdy.

**"Want me to go with you?"**

**"No, go ahead and meet up with your guys' team."**

**"You sure you can escape?" **Wu Qing glanced at the crowd that surrounded them before raising an eyebrow at Prince and smirking. **"They might try to steal your pants again, you know."**

**"Shut up, stupid brother."**

**"... If you're sure,"** Wicked shrugged, but still looked reluctant to leave.

**"I'll be fine. See your later,"** she waved at him. He nodded and turned around, calling to his teammates. Prince watched as they disappeared around a building, and she sighed. Picking Meatbun off her head so he wouldn't fall, she walked in the opposite direction and wove through the crowd.

"Where are we going?" asked Sunshine as he trailed along at her elbow.

"To the tea shop. There's too many people here."

"O-o-oh. I see," Sunshine nodded. "Why didn't Wicked come with us?"

"He's taking Dark Phantom out to the cliffs to train."

"Why are they going all the way out there?"

"The caves there have a lot of good training spots."

"Are there lots of monsters inside?"

"If there weren't, it wouldn't be a good training spot."

"But-"

"Please, stop asking questions," Prince pleaded, dragging her feet over the cobblestones of the road. She already felt tired enough without Sunshine's relentless interrogating. Before she slipped into the small, out-of-the-way tea shop, she took one more look up and down the nearly deserted road. She doubted Gui would be in such an obscure place, but it was strange that he still wasn't online. It wasn't until she'd been seated and was about ready to take a drink of her tea that a head abruptly popped around the doorway, wearing a coy expression.

"_There _you are, your most royal highness, Prince!" Gui's sweet voice filled the shop as he nearly skipped over to her table and sat down with a flourish. He sent smiles to Sunshine and Kenshin – as well as a pat on what was usually considered Meatbun's head - before beckoning a waiter to the table side to order some tea for himself.

She set her cup down and glared at him. "What do you mean, here _I_ am, where in the world have _you_ been? You're almost an hour late."

"I apologize, your highness," he suddenly looked solemn and folded his hands on top of the smooth table cloth. "I had quite a bit of work to do today, lots of essays to read and such."

Prince wasn't sure how to react to his calm look. She was expecting him to rush in and scream apologies at her while crying his eyes out. _Well, after yesterday, I guess shouldn't assume he's just a brainless moron with a head full of hot air..._

"Well, it's okay if that's the case," said Prince, after drinking the rest of her tea. "Real life stuff is more important than Second Life. And I've pretty much got that song down, anyway, so it isn't like practice is mandatory..."

Gui silently emptied his tea cup and then set it down with a thump on the table. Prince glanced up at him and was surprised to see disappointment covering his face. After a brief moment, it was gone. His usual bright smile was back at full blast as if the negative emotion had never been there in the first place.

_One minute you're happily drinking **my** tea and eating **my** dumplings, the next you're screaming at me, then you're all depressed, and now suddenly you're pretending to be happy! MAKE UP YOUR MIND, YOU..! YOU-!_

"Shall we go, your highness?" Gui pushed his chair back from the table as he saw Prince wasn't ordering anything else. He paused at her peevish expression and settled back down in his seat. "Oh, weren't you done eating..?"

_I'm not angry about __**that**__, stupid moron..._ "No. I'm still hungry." She waved over the waiter again and violently stabbed her finger at random things on the menu. "And a large order of meat buns, too."

"Right away," the waiter politely answered before hurrying off to fetch the food.

"Wow, no wonder you looked grumpy, your highness. You must have been very hungry, you ordered so much food. Good thing you train so vigorously every day, you'd be so fat if you didn't. Oh, but is it possible to get fat in Second Life? Hm... Well, I'd still think that you're the most handsome person even if you weighed-"

In a flash, Prince was out of her seat, her fist colliding with Gui's forehead.

**"PRINCE'S ATTACK SUCCESSFUL! GUILEASTOS -300 HP!"**

Gui collapsed, unconscious and bleeding on the floor. The waiter came back, holding several plates heaped with steaming food. He glanced down hesitantly at the corpse-like Gui and then shot Prince a forced smile as he carefully set the plates down on the table top. He refilled her tea before walking away as fast as he possibly could. Prince huffily sat down again and took a long drink of her fresh tea before digging into the plate that was closest to her. Meatbun hopped off her head and began to devour the steaming buns that were set to one side. Kenshin and Sunshine also started to eat, all three pets acting like nothing had happened.

As Prince was finishing her second plate of food, Gui let out a low groan and sat up, gingerly setting his hand on his forehead. Glancing at the blood left on his palm, he stood and lifted his chair upright again, and lowered himself down onto it with a sigh. Using a handkerchief, he carefully pressed it to his forehead and winced in pain. The snowy white cloth quickly began to turn red.

After several moments of silence, Prince pushed away her plate and pulled a small bottle out of her pouch. She awkwardly thrust it in Gui's direction and shook it a little. The blue liquid inside sloshed around noisily. Rather than taking the bottle, Gui simply stared at her in surprise as if he didn't know what to do.

"Wh-"

"Sorry... for hitting you..." Prince muttered, her face flushing slightly. She shook the bottle again. Gui hesitated for a moment more and then took it with a wide, genuine smile.

Popping out the small cork, he drank a small mouthful of the concoction and took the stained handkerchief off his head. The gash quickly knit back together, leaving smooth new skin in its wake. Using a clean corner of the handkerchief, he wiped the rest of the blood off his face and hands. He put the cork back in the top of the bottle and handed it back to Prince.

"Thank you for the health potion, your highness."

"You're welcome..." Prince slid her chair back across the floor and stood up. "Let's go."

Gui stood immediately and saluted. "Yes, your most worshipful highness, Prince!"

Prince scooped up Meatbun and placed him on top of her head. After all the buns he'd just eaten, he noticeably weighed more than he had. Rather than bouncing up and down, Meatbun snuggled into Prince's hair and made soft, sleepy cooing noises as he looked around from atop his perch. Followed by the other three, Prince stepped out of the tea shop, back into the warm sunlight of the small street. Only a few other players were in the area.

"Sunshine, can you get out your carpet?"

"Yes, Prince," Sunshine tucked his hand inside his robe and drew out his carpet. After he threw it into the air, he jumped on top. Prince followed close behind and helped Gui clamber up. Kenshin silently hopped on and settled on a corner, laying his sword on his lap and holding onto the carpet with one hand. He glared at Sunshine as the carpet started to move.

"Go..." Prince looked around for a moment, trying to decide which direction was which as they flew over the city. She eventually spotted a dark-looking forested area to the east of the city. "That way!" she pointed it out to Sunshine and he nodded, turning the carpet in one swift motion.

"Where are we going?"

"The tower is in the other direction, your highness..."

"We aren't going to the tower," Prince grinned conspiratorially at Gui. "We're going to train."

"Huh? What about practice..?"

Prince waved a hand and then turned forward again, watching the sinister cluster of trees grow closer. "Never mind that."

"YuLian isn't going to like this," said Gui as he glanced behind them at the shrinking city.

"We can apologize later."

"Hang on," Sunshine called behind him. The carpet's trajectory dipped as they began their descent toward the trees. Kenshin suddenly stiffened and tightly gripped the carpet with both hands. Prince shifted her weight backward to keep her balance. When it looked like they were about to crash into the treetops, Sunshine leveled the carpet and slowly circled downward toward one of the larger trees.

"Alrighty..." Prince mumbled as she slowly inched to the edge of the carpet. "Get it a little closer, Sunshine."

He nodded and flew them as close as he could to the tree while not drifting into the branches. As a large bough slipped by underneath them, Prince jumped off and landed nimbly on her feet. She looked upward and watched as Gui cautiously made his way to the edge of the carpet as they came to a stop.

"Y-your highness..." he fearfully spluttered. "I don't think I can jump off..."

"Yes, you can." Prince steadied herself on the limb and reached out her arms. "Come on, I won't let you fall."

Gui glanced downward at the long drop and gulped. Sunshine lowered the carpet down as much as he could. Gui hesitated only a moment before slipping off the edge and landing on the branch beside Prince. His slipper-clad feet slid a bit on the smooth tree bark and he gasped as he tilted sideways. Prince grabbed his arms and pulled him upright. He edged shakily toward the trunk and wrapped an arm around it.

"T-thank you, for the help."

"Sure," Prince let him go and stepped back out onto the branch as Sunshine and Kenshin landed a few feet away. The branch wildly swayed up and down as they straightened.

"Ooohh..." Gui gasped again and waved his free arm at Prince. "Be careful, your highness!"

Prince bent her knees slightly to accommodate the movement of the tree limb and looked down. "I won't fall off..." Even with her superior elven eyes, it was difficult to make out the ground. Not only were they very high up, the ground was also covered in a thick mist that coiled around the bases of the tree trunks. The branches were so thick, very little sunlight reached down to the area below them. A brief movement caught her eye as a patch of mist was upset by some large, dark-colored monster sliding past underneath their tree.

"Got one," she grinned. After handing the drowsy Meatbun to Gui, she swung herself down onto a lower branch, and positioned herself over the spot where she predicted the monster would move to. Drawing her thin, black blade out of its sheath, she firmly grasped it in both hands. She stepped off the branch and fell through the air head-first, watching the monster's progress. The sound of Gui yelling in alarm at her reckless action penetrated the air above her for a split second before it was suddenly muffled.

_Damn, that idiot!_ she thought furiously as the black beast on the ground lifted its scale-covered head and snarled as it saw her coming. Lifting her sword above her head, she swung it down with as much force as she possibly could, knocking its wide-spread jaws out of the way. She landed on its back and sliced her sword into the monster's neck and it shrieked in pain as it twisted its head around to try to bite her, fangs flashing dangerously in what little light there was. The game voice obnoxiously screamed something about the monster's health, but she ignored it. She lifted her blade again and brought it down, point first, on top of its head. Its skull cracked and gave way under the sharp tip, and her blade slid easily into its head. A spray of black blood spurted out of the injury as she swiftly yanked the blade out with a loud scraping noise of metal against bone and scales. The monster gave one last groan before collapsing on the ground.

**"PRINCE HAS KILLED DARK SERPENT! EXPERIENCE +500, AGILITY +100!"**

Prince flicked some of the blood off her sword as she jumped off the carcass. Peering upward into the thick branches, she watched Gui's slow descent. Sunshine and Kenshin were already standing quietly on one of the lowest boughs.

Sighing, she called up to Sunshine, "Can you help Gui down?"

Sunshine glanced up for a moment and then pulled his carpet out again. Gui looked relieved as Sunshine stopped underneath him. He jumped off the branch and flopped harmlessly onto the soft fabric. Sunshine carefully lowered them both to the ground and then tucked the carpet away again. Kenshin leapt off his perch and landed soundlessly on the ground nearby.

Gui shakily handed Meatbun back to Prince and his shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry, your highness. I'm not so good with heights."

Prince roughly grabbed the front of Gui's shirt and dragged him closer. She narrowed her eyes angrily and yelled, "Don't _scream _like that! We are trying to be INCONSPICUOUS, IN CASE YOU HADN'T NOTICED!"

"Ah!" Gui put his hands out in front of himself defensively. "I'm sorry! Please forgive me, your high-WHOA! PRINCE, BEHIND YOU!"

Kenshin jumped past them in a blur, his blade ringing as it flew through the air. Seconds later, a second dark serpent fell to the ground with a muffled crash as the game alerted them of its death. The red-haired pet stalked back to them and handed Prince the loot.

"Prince," he said monotonously. "Quit yelling."

Prince clicked her tongue and let Gui go. "Okay. Sorry." She looked around for a moment and spotted a tree with relatively low-hanging branches and pulled Gui toward it. "Climb up there. You'll be able to get a better view of the serpents from higher up, and it'll be easier to shoot them with your guqin."

"... I don't know if-"

"Just get up there," Prince hissed and pushed him at the trunk. "Sunshine, go with him, since your attacks are also long-range. You both can spot the serpents from a distance and draw them this way. Kenshin and I will fight from down here."

With a boost from Sunshine, Gui scrambled up the trunk in a very ungraceful manner and sat himself down on one of the lowest branches. He looked nervous, but obediently searched the ground for any movement in the mist. Soon, the air was filled with the musical sound of Gui's harp, and loud whooshing sounds from Sunshine's spells. They managed to get several snakes attacking at once with Sunshine and Gui pulling them from different directions.

Several hours later, they were flying on the carpet back toward the city after Prince and Gui both noticed they had amassed a large amount of angry messages across the party chat from their teammates, demanding they come back at once for the final band practice. To avoid any players getting in their way, Sunshine flew them straight into the large concert hall and halted a few feet over the stage. Prince slid off and watched as YuLian turned her way.

Prince laughed nervously and waved. YuLian stepped gracefully onto the stage and strode over, clipboard in hand. A chill went down Prince's spine as he stared down into her icy eyes.

"Ah, um... uh... We're here..."

"Four o'clock," YuLian snapped, tapping the end of her pen on the note-covered paper attached to the clipboard. "Band practice was supposed to start at four o'clock." She took a step closer to Prince and asked sweetly, "What time is it?"

"S-six... fifteen..?"

"And why weren't you _here_?"

"We were training," Gui whimpered as he tried to hide behind Prince.

YuLian's eyes narrowed and Prince quickly lifted the bag she was holding. Her hand shook violently as she tried to smile. "H-here is the-the loot..."

YuLian silently took the bag and weighted it in her grip. Prince glanced over Yulian's shoulder and saw Lolidragon peeking out of the doorway leading back stage. She beckoned to Prince and then disappeared out of sight.

Stepping to one side, Prince hurried around YuLian and ran for the door. Gui, who had been leaning against her back, almost fell over.

"I'll be back!"

"Prince!" wailed Gui dejectedly as Prince ducked through the doorway and came to a stop beside Lolidragon. Breathing heavily, Prince gratefully set her hand on Lolidragon's slender shoulder.

"You saved me!"

Lolidragon laughed and patted Prince on the cheek. "Of course! I'll always rescue you if you need me to!" Taking Prince by the arm, she steered her into one of the dressing rooms and shut the door behind them.

"...What are we doing in here?" asked Prince, glancing around the small room. Lolidragon pushed her further inside and then locked the door. _Oh no..._

"The girls and I have made you a new outfit for tonight!" Lolidragon said, gesturing toward a stack of clothes on top of the chair crammed into the corner. She winked and crossed her arms over her chest. "We have to make sure they fit, you know."

"D-Don't I already have enough clothes?" Prince asked hesitantly, trying to not wonder how Lolidragon managed to get her arms to interlock over her more-than-generous bust line. Prince's armoire was already on the verge of exploding due to all of the clothing that had been given to her over the past few weeks.

"You need new ones all the time!" Lolidragon snapped, stabbing Prince's forehead with one of her fingers. "Keeping up a fresh image is important!" She squeezed past Prince and picked up the top article of clothing, and held it up. A black shirt with a red dragon stitched across the front unfolded in her grip.

"For the love of-"

"Strip!"

"Aren't you going to leave?"

"Of course not!" Lolidragon stared at her, looking like she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

"You pervert," Prince mumbled over Lolidragon's giggles as she slowly removed her jacket and gloves. Dropping them onto another chair, she hooked her fingers around the bottom hem of her shirt and slipped it off, exposing her slim and well-defined chest. As she extended her arm to take the new shirt, her bicep was suddenly squeezed by Lolidragon. "Wha!"

"You're so _muscular_!"

"I know that perfectly well without you having to say so! Stop touching me!" Prince stepped back a few paces until she hit the wall, holding her shirt in front of her like a shield. "You creepy person!"

"Sorry, sorry. Please continue."

The lock on the door clicked, and the door swung open forcefully, almost squishing Prince. Wicked stepped through the doorway and sighed at Lolidragon's disappointed face. "I think Prince is capable of dressing himself, come on."

She glared at him for a moment and stalked past him out the door, handing him the shirt along the way. "Fine."

Wicked watched her retreat and then gave Prince the shirt. "See you in a minute..."

"Thanks," Prince smiled at him, feeling relieved. Wicked smiled back and closed the door behind him, locking it once more.

Prince sighed and put her shirt down on top of her gloves. She slipped the new shirt over her head and examined herself in the mirror. It was snug, but not to the point of being uncomfortable. Her muscles showed through the thin fabric and she sighed at the sight as she turned around to look at it from the back. _Ahh... Sometimes it pays to be a guy._

After exchanging her pants for the white ones that were on the chair, she put her boots back on. She sifted carefully through the pile of accessories Lolidragon and the other girls had provided for her to go with the outfit. She buckled a red belt securely around her thin waist, and clipped on a silvery necklace. Adjusting the Blood Tiara on her forehead and neatly arranging her hair, she left the room at long last and walked back out onto the stage, enjoying the feeling of the sun warming her skin.

* * *

_I considered making Gui nonchalantly hug Prince when they were in that tree... heehee. But he was too busy trying not to fall to his death.  
_


	3. Under the Willow Tree

_**Disclaimer** - 1/2 Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo._

_**Note -** I think my head is going to explode with inconsistent pronoun use.  
_

* * *

Gui couldn't imagine that anything in the entire world could compare in sweetness to Prince's voice as he sang. The clear notes that the young city lord created rang through the air like pure drops of rain falling gently on his face. Then again, everything Prince did was beautiful in Gui's eyes. The way Prince moved, the way his long fingers gracefully brushed his bangs out of his eyes when the wind sent them into disarray, the childish way his face lit up whenever he laughed. _Even the weird face he makes when he sneezes is pretty..._

With his eyes transfixed on the back of Prince's head, Gui stared as Prince lowered his microphone for the last time, waving his other arm energetically and yelling farewell. The audience that filled the stadium roared deafeningly. Gui lowered his tired arms and tucked his guqin under one elbow. The concert was over.

Stepping quickly around the drum set he waved and smiled at the audience as he followed Prince off the stage. Prince collapsed into the first chair he came to and gratefully took a towel and a cup of ice water from Lolidragon.

"Thanks."

"Sure thing!" Lolidragon turned to Gui and gave him a towel as well. "Great job, Gui!"

"Thank you," he smiled at her as she spun on her heel to give towels to the other band members who were sitting nearby. Gui dabbed at his face with the soft cloth and peered at Prince. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes closed tightly as he vigorously wiped his face. Gui's eyes widened as he watched a missed drop of sweat trail down Prince's neck, over his collarbone, and disappear under his shirt.

_Ooh, bad thoughts... Bad thoughts... _Gui covered his face with his towel, trying and failing to get various mental images of Prince out of his head.

Gui jumped slightly as Prince sighed and sat upright, shooting Gui a happy smile. "Another success."

"Yes," answered Gui, feeling his cheeks burn. He was grateful for the fact that his face was already red from the heat of the concert, allowing his blush to be concealed.

Prince stood up and stretched his arms overhead. "I'm going to go change."

"O-okay," Gui watched as Prince hurried into his dressing room. He took a few deep breaths before he went into his own, changing out of his stifling clothes Lolidragon had made him wear, and into his comfy, light-weight outfit he usually had on. He was grateful that the girls hadn't decided to spread their artistic tailoring skills to him, aside from the occasional outfit. As sympathetic Gui felt toward Prince getting treated like a doll, there was always one corner of his mind that enjoyed seeing each new look and couldn't help but admire how the girls managed to make such a wide variety of clothes.

Gui stepped out of his dressing room and leaned against the cold stone wall of the passageway as he waited for Prince to finish. He sighed with relief as the smooth wall chilled his back. He didn't have to wait long before the latch of Prince's door clicked and he stepped briskly outside, only to almost trip over the threshold when he noticed Gui was waiting.

Irritation flashed across Prince's face as he straightened up and coughed. "I'm done..."

Gui bit the inside of his cheek. He would rather have been punched yet again, than see Prince being so annoyed over his presence. "Shall we go?" asked Gui brightly as he pushed himself off the wall. Prince nodded shortly and wordlessly started down the passageway toward the exit.

It had been several days since Gui had lost his temper in the tower. He'd been so afraid to see Prince again the day after, he'd taken as much time as he possibly could grading papers at work. After a very long internal debate at home, he'd finally logged into the game, but used up more time wandering around to calm himself down before going to find Prince. The relief he felt at Prince acting normal had been replaced all too soon with a bitter, dejected feeling. Gui didn't want Prince to stress himself out even further over what he'd said, but he also didn't want Prince to casually brush it off and ignore the matter. It didn't seem like there was a happy medium when it came to discussing Prince's real identity.

Prince suddenly stopped, one bend away from the exit. Loud cheering was coming from outside, the echoes bouncing noisily off the stone walls. Gui stood silently behind Prince as he pressed himself up again the wall and looked around the corner with a grimace. His lips moved noiselessly for a moment, and then he turned around and walked quickly back the way they'd come. "Sunshine is coming to get us," he explained over his shoulder to Gui.

_Great. If it's not raging mobs of fans getting in the way, it's a pet._ Gui had been hoping to talk to Prince alone the night before, but never got a chance as they'd gone training rather than heading for the tower like he'd thought they were going to. It looked to Gui as if yesterday was about to repeat itself.

The pair stepped out onto the stage once more. Gui ran his eyes over the now-deserted array of seats. It was strangely quiet, given that almost the entire population of the central continent was standing outside, cheering as if their lives depended on it. He glanced miserably at Prince who was staring up at the edge of the hall, once again talking silently to someone in a private message. Gui looked away as he felt twinges of jealousy start to roil up. In the past, Gui had never been very possessive of his belongings or friends, to the point of driving away more than several significant others with his distant attitude. But as he spent more time with Prince, a dark feeling of resentment grew toward everyone else who came into contact with him, even if they weren't interested in Prince in a romantic way. His obsessive cravings for Prince were beginning to frighten even himself.

"He's here," Prince broke Gui out of his brooding with a thump on his shoulder and then waved at the incoming carpet. Caught off-guard by the swooping sensation in his stomach at Prince's casual touch, Gui watched him as he hurried forward to meet Sunshine. With a sigh, he stepped forward reluctantly.

"Thanks, Sunshine. It's a nightmare out there. One step out the door and we'd get ripped to shreds."

"Why would they want to do that?"

"Who knows, they're all insane. After such an awesome performance, I guess it's not surprising."

"Why would your concert make them insane?"

"Sunshine, he was joking."

"Oh."

Gui's head whipped upward at the unexpected sound of a third voice. Fairsky was sitting neatly at the front of the carpet next to Sunshine. Gui felt some of the stabbing jealousy alleviate as he smiled happily at the potential distraction of Sunshine's attention. Ever since Fairsky had switched her focus of affection from Prince to Sunshine, Gui had relaxed a considerable amount around her.

"Gui, hurry up," Prince stared down at him with an eyebrow raised at Gui's lack of progress across the stage.

"Yes, your highness!" called Gui as he ran over to the carpet and climbed on. Sunshine carefully lifted the carpet and they took off over the city. Loud cries of disappointment mixed in with the screaming as the crowd below saw their celebrity escaping in an unexpected direction.

"This feels great!" exclaimed Prince as he leaned backward with his eyes closed. The sweet-smelling wind whipped through his hair and he smiled happily. "It's so hot today, I thought I'd melt on stage."

"You looked like you were about to pass out afterward."

"I bet I would have right away if Lolidragon hadn't had water ready."

"Don't worry, your highness, Prince. If you ever feel like fainting, I shall be right there to catch you lovingly and safely in my arms, whichever way you fall," declared Gui, grinning widely.

Prince glanced at him and then smirked. Gui flinched and braced himself for a blow as Prince raised a fist. A gentle tap on the side of his head caused his eyes to fly back open. Gui opened and closed his mouth a few times, staring at Prince who was looking over the landscape with a smile on his face. He suddenly turned around and raised a finger warningly.

"If I ever fall on the ground, you better take responsibility."

Gui hesitated, not knowing whether or not Prince was joking. Prince rarely, if ever, humored Gui in his whimsical blathering. After a moment, Prince laughed and put his hand back down to rest on the carpet. Gui frowned and turned away. _I was being serious... _He looked over the edge of the carpet for a moment and found himself looking down on unfamiliar terrain. Rather than the thick woods and winding dirt paths that surrounded Infinite City, there were grassy fields flecked with wild flowers and rivers sparkling in the sunlight.

"Hey, where are we going?"

"We are going in 'that direction'," explained Sunshine. Gui waited for a continuation, but Sunshine, apparently thinking his vague answer was sufficient, began chatting brightly to Fairsky.

Gui turned to Prince. "Where?"

"Exactly what he said. We're going that direction." Prince waved his hand toward the front of the carpet.

_In other words, you don't know._ It wasn't the first time Prince had gone in a random direction and expected to arrive wherever he was supposed to be going. Gui simply went along with it, knowing that pointing out the fact that it looked like they were completely lost would be useless.

Several minutes later, Gui felt the carpet dip as Sunshine began to take them toward the ground. Gui looked back and forth, but there wasn't anything nearby that he recognized. There was a river, a small pond with some willows on the bank, and grassy hills as far as he could see. There weren't even any monsters in sight, which, considering Prince's love for killing anything he laid eyes on, was bizarre. Sunshine stopped the carpet a few feet off the ground and Prince jumped off, landing softly in the long grass. Gui followed him, feeling very confused.

Prince stretched himself out and then started toward the pond, humming one of the songs from the concert. Gui glanced at the two still on the carpet before following, lifting his cloak slightly so it wouldn't snag on the grass.

"It's nice out here," said Prince, tilting his head back to stare up at the clear blue sky. "Second Life is so huge."

"Yeah."

Prince glanced back at Gui's sullen expression and frowned slightly. "What's up with you?"

Gui shook his head and tried to look cheerful again. It was difficult. "Nothing. Sorry."

Prince glared at him before grabbing his arm and roughly dragging him into the shade underneath one of the twisting willow trees. He sat down and pulled Gui onto his knees in the grass, and then began staring out over the pond. Gui looked over his shoulder to see if Sunshine and Fairsky were following. His eyes widened as he saw there was no sign of them, on the ground or in the air.

"Um, your highness. They-"

"Don't worry, I told them to come back for us in a few hours," said Prince as he picked a blade of grass and began shredding it length-wise. "I just wanted a change of scenery. You've been looking kind of tired lately, I thought maybe it'd be good for you, too."

Gui's heartbeat sped up slightly. He hadn't known that Prince was that attentive of him. It was difficult to keep his composure at times like this.

"Also," continued Prince, somewhat hesitantly. "It was difficult to think of a place where we could talk... alone." He scratched the tip of his pointed ear before picking another blade of grass. Gui silently observed as the piece of grass met a similar fate as the one before it. At last, Prince threw the pieces to one side and suddenly turned to look at Gui face-to-face.

"Well?"

"What?" Gui stared at him.

"You're sitting there so quietly, it's creeping me out. I thought you wanted to talk. If you don't have anything to say to me, we might as well go back, or go find something to kill."

"I'm sorry," Gui quickly shook his head.

"Stop apologizing. You act like I'm going to murder you if you say anything."

"...That's what you usually do."

"That's 'cause you say everything in such an idiotic way. What do you expect me to do whenever you blurt out stupid things? Run over and hug you and scream how much I appreciate it? It bothers me when you treat everything like a joke. Not that I expect you to be serious _all_ the time. That would be weird..."

"You're right, I'm sorry."

"I said stop apologizing," grumbled Prince as he leaned back against the willow's trunk. "You're making me feel like a bully."

Gui took a deep breath and looked down at his hands. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you."

"...And?"

"I wanted to-" Gui stopped himself and felt his face burn. He'd almost apologized again. _I really need to stop giving myself reasons to say sorry._ "H-have you given any thought to what I said? In the tower..."

Prince sighed and didn't say anything for a moment. "I have. I think I gave it too much, actually." He abruptly sat up and shoved Gui, but not roughly. "You have horrible timing, you know that?"

Gui stared wide-eyed at him. "I do?"

"You waited to bring all that up 'til I was swamped with memorizing all those new songs, band practice, training, and even homework! And then you expected me to give you a coherent answer to your rant right away? Do you know how much pressure you put on me? Idiot!" Prince clenched his fists and punched the ground.

Gui glanced at him worriedly. "I'm s- I didn't mean to do that..."

Prince sighed. "I know you didn't. If you had, I would have thrown you out my tower window." He chuckled for a few seconds as if picturing the act. Gui still couldn't decide if Prince actually was as violent as he seemed on the surface.

"Now then!" yelled Prince suddenly, causing Gui to jump. "I'm going to say things straight out. As I said, I've given what you told me a lot of thought." Gui started to feel extremely nervous as Prince paused. "I'm going to stand by what I said before. I'm really... reluctant to tell you who I actually am."

Gui felt as though all the air had been knocked out of him. It had been a very long time since he'd seriously cried, but he could feel the tears start to sting at the corner of his eyes at Prince's rejection. He'd attempted to prepare himself for this outcome, but there was little he could do when Prince actually answered.

"I see," he finally answered.

"Truthfully, I've thought about telling you," said Prince as he shrugged, a complicated expression on his face.

"Why can't you?"

"I told you already."

"What?" Gui felt confused all over again. "For goodness sake. How many more times and different ways do I have to tell you that my feelings aren't going to change before you'll believe me?"

"I know that already," Prince said quietly.

"You're contradicting yourself!"

"I am not," he looked at Gui angrily. "You love me, right?"

"Y-yes!"

"There! That's exactly it!"

"Huh?"

"Remember the time you were at the little cafe with that girl?"

Gui gaped at Prince with a horror-struck expression. _HE SAW!_ "P-Prince, it's not what you think, really! She... She asked me to go with her, it wasn't a date or anything! She's just one of my students! You have to believe me!"

Rather than looking relieved after hearing Gui's frantic explanation like he thought would happen, Prince looked more like he was about to burst into tears. Panic began to rise in his chest as he tried to think of something convincing to say.

"I swear, I'm telling the truth-"

"I KNOW!" Prince suddenly screamed at him, his face turning a deep shade of red. "She's just a student to you! That part is extremely clear! I already know everything you said when you two were talking." He sniffed and Gui felt his confusion go to a whole new level.

"If you knew that already, why in the world are you getting so upset?"

"BECAUSE THE ONE YOU LOVE IS _PRINCE_!"

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" For the second time in about as many days, Gui felt like hitting Prince. He wasn't making any sense. Gui trembled with anger as he watched Prince quietly rest his head on his knees.

"You love Prince. You don't love _me_."

Gui almost didn't catch Prince's hopeless whisper. He finally realized what he'd been saying. Gui closed his eyes and fell back against the willow tree, feeling exhausted as Prince's cryptic words began to look slightly clearer.

"Oh, what the hell..? _That's_ what you meant? Prince, do you honestly think I wouldn't love you if I met you and you weren't like your in-game character?"

Prince slowly nodded.

"Wh... Then, what about me?"

Prince shot him a bewildered glance. "What?"

"Do you feel differently about Min Gui Wen than you do Guileastos?"

"Of course not," he shook his head and then mumbled, "You're both idiots..."

Gui decided to ignore Prince's little addition. "Then what makes you think it's any different for me?" asked Gui quietly. He put his hand on Prince's shaking back. "Even though I don't know who you are in real life, I'll love you the same either way."

"But you're..." Prince bit his lip.

"Huh?"

"Never mind..." He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes with a sigh. "I'm a lot different than Prince."

Gui almost laughed as he shrugged. "Isn't that how it's supposed to be? I doubt anyone is the same as their game-selves. That's the great thing about playing Second Life, you get to be whoever and whatever you want. Since you seem to know me in real life, you can't exactly say that I'm the same as Guileastos, either. It would be completely irrational of me to expect you to be just like Prince."

He smiled as Prince looked a bit calmer and he nodded in agreement. Gui felt slightly better as he watched Prince stretch his legs out on the grass. Disappointment at Prince's hesitation toward meeting face-to-face was pushed aside and Gui tried to focus on the moment. _Maybe leaving things are they are isn't so bad. At least for now._

They sat quietly, watching ripples in the water of the pond as a fish broke the glassy surface. The vine-like branches of the willow swayed slightly in the breeze.

"It really is beautiful out here," mumbled Gui.

"Mm-hm."

Feeling somewhat daring, Gui shifted closer on the grass to Prince and set his hand on his head, slowly running a lock of the silky, white hair through his fingers. He paused as Prince turned and stared at him guardedly.

"What are you doing?"

"Playing with your hair."

"Why?"

"Because I want to."

"Well, stop."

"Why should I?"

"Because," huffed Prince as he tried to slap away the hand. "It's embarrassing, I don't... want you... to..." His voice trailed off as Gui took his hand and leaned forward. "Wai-wait-"

Gui gently pressed his lips to Prince's, and felt his body tense. The hand that gripped his drew tighter, almost painfully, but Gui barely noticed. Placing his other hand on Prince's back, he drew him closer and deepened the kiss. He felt somewhat surprised as Prince slid his hands up Gui's back and grasped him by the shoulders as he returned the embrace. Gui never knew the nerves in his back were so sensitive. The spots where Prince's hands pressed and where his lips had touched felt like they were on fire and it was steadily spreading. Pulling Prince's body against his own, he slowly fell backward with a soft thump as they hit the grass. The earthy smells of the ground mingled with the somewhat spicy scent of Prince's hair and skin. Gui started to feel lightheaded as sensation after sensation washed over him. For as many times as he'd imagined this moment, the real thing was almost suffocating. He nearly lost himself when Prince let out a quiet groan against Gui's mouth.

Gui wasn't sure just how much time had passed, it may have been minutes, or hours, or even years, but all too soon, as a breathy sigh passed between their lips, it was over. Prince didn't bother climbing off Gui, but simply laid there with his head resting on Gui's rising and falling chest. He absently twirled a strand of Gui's long hair around his fingers. Gui gently tightened his arms around him, enjoying the warm weight of Prince's body, staring up at the patches of sky he could see through the rustling tree branches.

"D-don't do that with no warning..."

"Sorry."

"Didn't I say stop apologizing?"

Gui laughed at Prince's indignant tone. "I'll try to remember."

Just as Gui was starting to feel sleepy, Prince suddenly lifted his head looked around wildly. He stood up and began frantically brushing grass and leaves off his clothing. Gui winced and rubbed his stomach where Prince had forcefully launched himself off.

"What's wrong?"

Footsteps coming through the grass made Gui turn around. He felt all the blood drain out of his face as Lolidragon strode up and came to a stop next to him. She gave his disheveled look a once-over, and then stared at Prince's horrified expression before bursting into laughter. Gui slowly stood up and brushed himself off as he watched her slap Prince on the back.

"Stop laughing!" yelled Prince as he stomped away.

Lolidragon gasped and wiped a few tears away, her sides still shaking. "I tried to warn you! It's your own fault for not responding to my messages. I didn't mean to interrupt your little tryst, but Sunshine was getting impatient over there."

Even Prince's ears had turned red with embarrassment as he awkwardly climbed on top of the carpet where Sunshine was sitting. Gui hurried over and sat down beside him.

"Did you have a nice talk?" asked Sunshine as he looked from one to the other with an interested expression. Gui nodded briefly as Prince crossed his arms, trying to ignore Lolidragon's unconvincing pleadings for forgiveness. As the carpet took off, Gui opened the list of his private messages. There were several brief, unread messages sent by Lolidragon over the span of about ten minutes.

**[05:23 Hello-o-o, Gui! I'm coming with Sunshine to get you guys~! We're almost there!]**

**[05:23 You better not be naked!]**

**[05:25 Scratch that last message, be naked all you want! It'll make a great addition to our next portfolio!]**

**[05:26 I can see the pond!]**

**[05:26 We're here! I'll give you a few more minutes, so hurry and finish!]**

**[05:28 I hope I didn't put too much pressure on you! But seriously, hurry up.]**

**[05:30 Sunshine is starting to threaten me with his flying carpet tricks, get your butts over here! I don't want to die!]**

**[05:32 Okay, you asked for it. Here I come.]**

Gui put his head in his hand as he listened, the urge to push Lolidragon off the carpet grew stronger with each new message. As irritating and meddling Lolidragon could be, he was slightly grateful that Wicked hadn't been the one to accompany Sunshine. A moment of embarrassment at getting caught in a situation like that was far better than finding himself with his head getting chopped off. Unease settled in his stomach as he watched the walls of Infinite City get closer. All his blissful feelings had been left under that tree. He glanced at Prince. His eyes were fixed on the city, a troubled look drawing his eyebrows together.

As the carpet came to a halt inside the city, Gui felt his mood darken. Wicked hurried up, looking furious. As Prince hopped off, Wicked grabbed him by the shoulders and began to pull him away toward where the rest of Dark Phantom was standing.

"Where in the world have you been? I messaged you a ton of times."

"I was just outside the city for a bit."

"Don't do that, okay? I was really worried."

Gui glared at him and turned away, striding quickly out of the area. It was easy to be angry out of pure jealousy, but he could feel sympathy welling up for his rival. Gui would have acted the same way – if not more panicky – if Prince had disappeared somewhere Gui couldn't find.

**"Gui!"**

Gui froze in his steps as he heard Prince's voice call to him over the messaging system.

**"Yes, your highness?"**

**"Sorry, for that..."**

**"It's not your fault. Don't worry about it."**

Gui leaned against the cold stone wall of one of the nearby buildings, watching people walk by. He silently waited for Prince to message him again. His internal clock was telling him it was almost time to wake up. _Come on..._

**"Gui!"**

**"Yes?"** Gui smiled with relief as Prince's voice one again sounded in his ears.

**"What are you doing after school?"**

**"Grading stuff."**

**"... How long will that take?"**

**"Not long, probably. I can be done by four if I work fast."**

**"Four thirty, then."**

**"What?"**

**"At four thirty, come to the coffee shop near the university."**

**"..."**

**"Gui?"**

**"S-sorry... Yes, I'll be there."**

**"See you, then."**

Gui stared vacantly at the wall of the building across the road, praying he had correctly heard Prince's invitation to meet. A quiet beeping noise that no one else seemed to notice started to fill the air. Slowly, the street of Second Life faded out of sight and he woke up in his bed. Quickly silencing the alarm clock, he took off his headset and placed it on the low bed-side table next to his lamp. Sitting up, he rumpled up his already-messy hair with one hand and sighed into the darkness.

He could still feel the warm brush of Prince's lips against his.

* * *

_I was tempted to take that one part further... Sorely tempted... xD  
_


	4. The Meeting

_**Disclaimer** - 1/2 Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo._

_**Note -**_ _This isn't very climactic, and is relatively calm compared to a lot of the "identity revealing" fic's I've read in the past which usually go along the lines of "OMGYOU'REPRINCE" "OMGYOUFOUNDOUT", but I wanted something more realistic. _

_I wasn't really sure how to end it, either. This is why I usually stick to one-shots and short stories... Whenever I go for a longer story, my plot weaves all over the place like an intoxicated jellyfish attempting to tango._

* * *

Lan stood across the street from the designated coffee shop. It was a brick building with attractively arranged pots of flowers and plants out front. A small, somewhat cute shop in a prime location near enough to the university to attract a steady flow of students during their between-class breaks. But to Lan it all looked a bit imposing as she ran her eyes over the exterior, pointlessly wishing she was somewhere else. She could see Gui through the large window, bent over a table in the corner where he'd spread several books and pieces of paper. His eyes hadn't moved from the same spot the whole time she'd been watching him. She wiped her sweaty palms off on the sleeves of her jacket for what felt like the hundredth time. Even the nervousness she suffered before a concert wasn't as bad as she was feeling as she stared at Gui's uncharacteristically lifeless frame. She worked hard to gain approval from her fans and be the kind of person they could admire, but Gui was much more important to her than any fan, and at that moment, she wasn't feeling particularly impressive. The traffic signal on the corner where she stood flashed from red to green. It had already changed several times since her arrival on the busy street corner, but she still didn't feel any more ready to cross. Her eyes drifted back to the window. Gui still hadn't moved, either. A vague, wondering thought of whether or not he had somehow accidentally fallen asleep with his eyes open while sitting at the table briefly passed through her mind.

She took a deep, steadying breath and watched as the traffic signal beside her flickered to red once more. As several vehicles passed in front of her, obstructing her line of sight to the window, she began to mentally count down, waiting for the light to turn green. It changed all too soon. Her legs would barely listen to her as she reluctantly stepped onto the crosswalk and walked as slowly as she possibly could to the other side of the road. Quickly slipping past the corner of the building and out of sight of Gui's window, she hurried toward the entrance underneath a colorful awning, waving lazily in the warm breeze. Stretching out her shaking hand, she put it on the cold handle of the door and slowly pressed down on it. The door swung inward with a loud ringing noise from the bell attached to the other side. In her hurry to get inside and out of the doorway, she almost tripped over the threshold. _Damn it! What do you doors have against me?_ She gave the door jamb a forceful kick to vent her pent-up energy.

"W-welcome..." greeted a waitress after Lan's violent entrance.

Willing her eyes to not water from the pain now throbbing in several of her toes, Lan swung her head around and stared at the woman. "Hello."

"May I show you to an empty table?"

"I'm here to meet someone, he's over there..."

"I see. What would you like to drink?"

"Green tea, please."

"Certainly, one moment," the waitress, obviously relieved to escape from the agitated girl, hurried away.

Lan looked over to the corner where Gui was quietly sitting. He was still staring at what looked to be the same spot, on the same paper. Before she could hesitate again, she carefully wove her way through the chairs and tables scattered through the small, and thankfully not very populated, room and stopped at the end of the Gui's table. Her heart, which had already been thumping faster than she knew was possible, sped up further when Gui finally looked up from his work. The corners of his eyes scrunched up in confusion as he straightened his back and set down the pen he'd been prodding his cheek with.

"Feng Lan, what a pleasant surprise. How are you?"

"Good."

"Ah," he smiled at her politely. "Are you here to meet someone?"

"Yes."

He nodded briefly and looked past her, toward the door where the bell had just rang again as someone entered. Disappointment and anxiety flickered across his face before he looked back up at Lan. "...Did you have a question, or something?"

"No."

His thin eyebrows lowered slightly at her string of one-word answers. "I see." He leaned against the back of his seat and took a sip of the tea in his cup. "Well, I wouldn't want to keep—Hey, wait, what are you doing?"

Lan ignored his indignant protests as she sat down across from him on the only other chair at the table. The waitress walked up and set a cup of tea down in front of her. She wrapped her trembling fingers around the warm cup to try to steady them as she smiled at the waitress.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Um, Feng Lan," Gui tentatively watched her as she took a long drink of the tea. "Not to be rude, but I would appreciate it if you waited elsewhere for your friend. I'm meeting someone and he should be here soon."

She stared at his hazy visage through the steam roiling over the top of her teacup, wondering how long it would take for things to sink in. _Are smart people always this stupid?_ "My 'friend' is already here."

"May I ask why are you sitting at _my_ table, then?" Gui glanced briefly around the few people in the shop. "Not that I don't, um, enjoy your company..?" He began to look somewhat worried.

_He probably doesn't want 'Prince' to catch him with a girl again... _Lan felt an agitated twitch start in her eye as a scowl settled on her face. Her patience with his complete lack of perception was running dangerously low. She knew all too well that she was also very slow with many types of things, but Gui was starting to make her seriously angry. She was nervous enough without him trying to get her to leave. If they had been in Second Life, she would have impaled him on her sword a long time ago. She settled for clenching her fists and visualized beating his face until he was barely recognizable. "Stop being so dense, you moron."

His annoyingly polite smile was starting to slip off, and he blinked slowly. "What?"

"You're the one who brought up the great idea of meeting in the first place, so stop trying to send me on my merry way!"

To Lan's dismay, he began to gather his books and papers. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but please have a nice day, Feng Lan. See you in class on Thursday."

"Gui!" hissed Lan through her teeth as she slapped her hand on top of the paper he was about to grab. "Sit your ass down or I swear I'll..." She searched the cluttered table top for any potential weapons before whispering threateningly, "I'll stab you with that pen!"

He stopped moving, hand still tightly gripping the other end of the paper she'd pinned, and looked at her in alarm as if contemplating whether or not she would really attack him. He glanced around the shop once more and then a mixture of realization and horror dawned on his face. "Wait..." He leaned over the table as if to get a better view of her face and looked her in the eye. "You couldn't be..."

"Took you long enough, idiot. Why else would I sit down and interrupt your incredibly important staring contest with that piece of paper?"

His face visibly paled as he silently continued to look at her, mouth slightly ajar. With trembling hands he gathered up the papers and books scattered over the top of the table and stacked them in a neat pile to one side. For a second, she thought he was going to try to leave again, but he set the pen on top of the pile, purposefully out of Lan's reach, and then rested his forehead on one of his hands and stared down at the pale liquid inside his tea cup.

Lan bit her lip and looked out the window. She hadn't dared to hope for a positive reaction, but as Gui looked down at his tea with such a mortified expression, she didn't know what to do. She spent quite a bit of her time trying to get Gui to stop screaming, yelling, and throwing other such abnormally loud things at her. Now that she actually wanted him to respond, his mouth was firmly shut.

"Well," came his quiet mutter at last. "This is awkward."

It took Lan a great deal of will power to keep herself seated when she wanted nothing more than to jump up and run out of the shop. After stabbing him with the pen. She forced her voice to be steady and said, "This is why I didn't want to meet you."

Gui abruptly looked up and shook his head. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry." He sighed and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I just... You're a... How is this even _possible_? Gender changes are against Second Life's rules."

She gazed at him suspiciously. "How do you know? Did you try to turn into a woman?"

"What? No!" he wildly denied. "It was on the list of rules in the game manual! I read it before I logged in for the first time."

"Oh." She looked back down at her cup of tea.

Gui sighed and looked her thoughtfully. "This certainly clears up a lot of things, like why I thought your brother was Prince. And why Zhuo Ling Bin is always..." His face temporarily twisted into an irritated frown. He sighed again. "How did you manage to overlook the rules?"

"Yang Ming wouldn't shut up about how easy girls have it in game. I was the first person to login, so the staff of Second Life let me have a special request. And that's... how that happened," ended Lan with a shrug.

Gui silently stared at her for nearly a minute, his eyebrows drawing closer and closer together in disbelief until they were nearly touching. "Of... Of all the things you could have asked for, you used an opportunity like that on a _gender change_?" She nodded. He suddenly began to roar with laughter.

"So, what if I did?" she snapped, trying to ignore the stares from the other people in the shop. The intensity of Gui's laughter only increased, making her face burn with humiliation. "Stop that!" She sharply kicked his shin under the table, only to regret it a few seconds later as pain shot up her bruised toes once more. It took several minutes, but he slowly calmed down, still letting out an occasional chuckle as he wiped his eyes and smiled at her.

"I'm-I'm sorry," he gasped.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," mumbled Lan after his giggling had finally stopped. "...As mushy as it sounds, making Prince gave me the opportunity to meet all you guys."

"You're right. It was a good decision if you think about it like that. My life certainly would have been a lot different if I'd never met you."

"Yeah. It would probably be normal..."

Gui laughed and shook his head as if the idea of a normal life was completely unimaginable. The members of the Odd Squad, as well as the majority of Infinite City's vast population, were far from what most people would consider normal. Regardless, Lan had never one wished for a more normal life. The time she spent with her friends, whatever they were doing, was priceless.

Lan watched as Gui slid the top paper out from under the pen and actually read a few lines. "Essays?"

He nodded and smirked. "I tried getting them all graded before we were supposed to meet, but it was kind of difficult to focus."

"Sorry." She'd already noticed his absent-mindedness in class earlier that day. Even several of her classmates, who usually reveled in Gui's more than abundant easy-going attitude, had become annoyed at all the mistakes he'd made during his lecture.

He looked up worriedly. "You don't have to apologize. I would have asked to meet a different day if this was really pressing. Well, no, I probably wouldn't have... But I still have several days to grade them all. It's not a problem."

"Oh. That's good," she nodded. His gaze returned once more to the paper in his hand. Without looking away, he reached his hand out and grabbed his pen. Popping off the cap, he quickly made several red marks in various spots and wrote notes in the paper's margins. She felt somewhat confused at his focus. He was always so scattered and hyper, it was unsettling to see him in paper-grading professor-mode. _Then again, I can't imagine anyone sane acting like Guileastos in real life._

Lan watched as he recapped his pen and set it and the essay to one side with a small sigh of satisfaction. She waited until he'd taken a drink of tea before asking falteringly, " Um, so... Nothing changed between... us... right?"

He glanced at her awkwardly and his cheeks turned slightly pink. "No," he slowly replied. "No, nothing changed. At least, not in a negative way." He swirled his tea around for a moment in its small cup. "Out of curiosity, why were you so convinced that my feelings would change if we met?"

She dubiously raised one eyebrow. "Why do you think?" _He's as dimwitted as Yang Ming... _When he didn't respond she blurted out, "Because you're gay!"

At an alarming rate, his face turned from pink to a deep red and he silently rubbed his mouth for a moment. "Oh, that... That was an act."

Lan wasn't sure if she'd correctly heard his quiet reply. After so many ridiculous, bizarre things came out of his mouth, she was positive she would never be able to predict what he would say next. "Huh?"

"I was only pretending," he said a bit louder, though still very quiet to avoid being overheard, all the while looking thoroughly embarrassed.

"You moron! Who the hell pretends to be gay? How could you be so misleading?"

He shot her a perturbed look. "You're in no position to say that – especially to _me_ of all people! You let me believe you were a guy! Even _I_ was starting to think I was gay!"

Lan paused, finger raised and mouth open to retort, but she couldn't think of anything to say. He had a point. She settled back in her seat and crossed her arms. "Fine, so we both have some... strange hobbies."

He slowly drank the remainder of his tea and set the cup down carefully. "I'm sorry for giving you the wrong impression, but I'm really not. I just... The day we met, I saw you staring at me and thought maybe it would be fun to play with you a bit... And then you always looked like you were enjoying yourself so much whenever you beat me up, I just left it as it was. Things kinda took off from there..."

"Masochist."

"If I'm a masochist, that makes you a sadist," he smirked.

"Shut up."

Gui laughed as Lan turned away and stared angrily out the window. He glanced down at his cup for a moment and then sighed. "I'm getting more tea. Do you want anything?" At his question, she snatched up the small table menu and opened it. He suddenly looked worried. "Not to be stingy, but can you try to... hold back? I don't really want a repeat of our last little outing where your bottomless stomach cleaned out my wallet. I know you're used to eating however much you want for free in Infinite City, but that doesn't really work here..." his voice dropped off as his eyes flickered from her to the menu.

Lan shot him a falsely offended look and smacked his hand with the menu. "Fine! I have to go home and make dinner soon, anyway."

His face fell slightly. "Oh, you do?"

"Yeah. Yang Ming is hopeless, he'd-" she paused as a ringing erupted from somewhere around her waist. Sticking her hand into her pants' pocket for a moment, she pulled out her cellphone and looked at the display screen. "What a coincidence." She quickly flipped open the phone, but didn't put it to her ear.

"_SIS! WHERE ARE YOU? I CALLED HOME AND MOM SAID YOU WEREN'T BACK YET!_" her brother's voice came through the phone at an alarming volume and made Gui jump in surprise.

"Stop screaming, you idiot!" she snarled in reply. "I'm still at the coffee shop!"

"_But it's almost dinner time!_"

"Make something yourself!"

"_I CAN'T!_"

"STARVE, THEN! YOU'RE-"

"Excuse me," called a small, quavering voice at Lan's side.

"WHAT DO YOU-?" she looked up at the extremely frightened waitress and covered the phone, muffling Yang Ming's voice which was still coming out. "Sorry. Yes?"

"I apologize for the interruption, b-but you're disturbing the other customers."

Lan glanced over her shoulder to find that she had become the object of attention throughout the shop. _Damn brother. I'm definitely going to kill you._

"_SI-I-I-IS!_"

"_Give me that!_" Ling Bin's voice suddenly broke through Yang Ming's whining. Lan winced as she watched Gui's eyes narrow.

"_Wait! I'm not-_"

"_Xiao Lan?_"

"_Give it back!_"

"_Shut up, you blockhead! You're going to get us thrown out of the library!_"

Lan groaned as the voices over the phone continued to argue and the sound of a physical fight joined in with their yells. Sliding her chair back, she looked apologetically at Gui. "I'm sorry, I-I think I have to go..."

"_Xiao-OUCH! WHY DID YOU BITE ME-_"

Lan quickly ended the call, put the phone on silent, and stuffed it in her pocket as she stood up. Gui waited until the waitress had walked away before looking darkly up at Lan with his lips pressed tightly together in anger.

"Was that who I think it was?"

"Maybe..?"

Gui sighed and picked up the papers. Slowly he tucked them and his books away in his work bag that had been sitting on the floor next to his chair. He stood up and walked wordlessly to the cash register by the door. The employee behind the counter looked extremely happy to see them leave, and asked them to come back soon in a very unconvincing tone.

Once they'd both gone outside onto the sunny sidewalk, she fell into step beside him and peered up worriedly. "Um, I'm going to go meet up with Yang Ming at the library and walk home with him."

"Alright."

"Are you angry?"

Gui snorted. "The mere thought of _that guy_ pisses me off."

"Sorry."

He glanced down at her and smiled slightly as his face relaxed. "Who was it that said 'stop apologizing'? I'm not mad at you. He's you twins' childhood friend, after all. I can't expect you to never come into contact with him... Though, that would be nice," he added as an afterthought. When they reached the street, he paused, and turned the smaller, less-populated street that intersected with the larger one. After a moment, he abruptly pulled Lan into an alcove between two buildings and asked quickly, "May I have your cellphone number?"

"Oh, sure," answered Lan as she pulled the phone out of her pocket and opened it. There was already several missed calls from Yang Ming's phone. She ignored them and switched to her phone book.

"Perfect, thank you." He beamed at her after they'd exchanged numbers and tucked his phone into a pocket on the front of his bag. "Now then, one more thing before we go back to the university."

Before Lan could protest, or react in any way, Gui leaned over and kissed her. It was brief and cautious, given their surroundings, but just as gentle and sweet as the one from earlier that morning in-game. Her cheeks flushed as she looked up at his mischievous smile.

She shoved his shoulder as hard as she could, which, compared to her strength as Prince that could easily make Gui fly across a spectacular distance, didn't do very much. She stomped out of the niche. "I said don't do that without warning me first!"

"I said 'one more thing', didn't I?" he stepped out of the shadows and rubbed his shoulder as they continued on their way down the sidewalk.

"That's not a warning, stupid!"

He looked at her piteously. "You're cruel."

"I'm the Blood Elf. What did you expect?"

A playful smile spread across his face and he returned his focus to where he was walking. "Nothing less than your usual ruthlessness, of course, your highness."

"I'm going to punch you later," grumbled Lan under her breath.

To avoid being seen together, they parted ways while they were still a few blocks from the university. Lan wanted to walk with him a bit further, but getting spotted by anyone, especially Ling Bin, would have caused a great deal of trouble that both Lan and Gui didn't want to deal with. The excuse of just being friends could only go so far. But the fact that they had to keep their relationship a secret didn't stop her from feeling immensely happy as she hurried across the grassy lawn of the university to find Yang Ming.

Her elation only lasted a matter of hours. Seconds after she'd logged into Second Life she'd been grabbed without warning from behind by Lolidragon and dragged off to a very long session of poking and prodding and sticky tape to prepare for the band's photo shoot. It hadn't been very long since their last portfolio had been put on sale, but YuLian, being the calculating person she was, decided to make another since the earlier ones had made a nice profit. The band's fans were always unbelievably eager to buy their merchandise. However, even if they made countless portfolios, Prince doubted she'd ever get used to some of the poses she was told to do. Some of the more extreme she, and several other people besides, would completely refuse. But some she couldn't wriggle out of.

Prince shifted her weight from one foot to the other and tried to keep her balance as she leaned slightly backward. Water dripped off her bangs and ran down her face, causing her cheeks to itch slightly, but she refrained from scratching. Her partially unbuttoned shirt was uncomfortably plastered to her skin. Warm breath was tickling at her ear, making her want to move her head out of the way. The radiating heat from Gui's body was warming her back to the point that she was starting to feel like her skin was being baked, regardless of the cold water dripping down from a hose that had been attached to the ceiling for a rain effect. One of Gui's arms was draped around her waist, with his hand placed over her lower abdomen, and he was slightly bent over with his head almost resting on her shoulder. Both of her arms were raised and draped around Gui's neck.

_I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of raving fans tore us all to smithereens after this portfolio is finished._ Prince had already done several series of poses with the other band members, in both groups and pairs. Lolidragon seemed to have an endless supply of ideas for provocative bodily arrangements which would give everyone's crazed followers more than enough reasons to start a riot, both out of jealousy and of lewdness. Prince was happy that at least the other band members weren't in the room when they did pairs. The tension between them was bad enough in the group shots that they decided back during the first portfolio's photo shoot to do pair photographs separately. Not that it helped very much after everyone had seen the shots that were taken.

Prince sighed wearily. Her back muscles were starting to burn from several minutes of trying to avoid falling backward and squashing Gui against the wall which was serving as their backdrop. _Not that he would care..._

"YuLian," she whimpered. Her elbows let out muffled popping noises as she lowered them slightly. "My arms hurt. How many pictures are you planning on taking before I can move again?"

"Just a few more," replied YuLian as the photo critter flitted around the empty space between those being photographed and those observing. Every few seconds it would position itself and snap a picture from a different angle.

"Prince," called Lolidragon. Prince attempted to look at her out of the corner of her eye to avoid moving. "Tilt your head to the left a bit."

Prince obediently let her head rest on Gui's sopping wet hair.

"Okay, give us some nice bedroom eyes!"

Prince turned and shot a glare at Lolidragon. "We aren't trying to make _that_ kind of book, you know! This is bad enough already!"

"He's right," Ugly Wolf agreed from his seat to one side.

"I agree," Gui huffed from over Prince's shoulder. "Only I am allowed to see Prince's seduct-"

"Shut up!" Prince stomped on Gui's foot while trying to keep her poise intact. As Gui's eyes started streaming with tears from the pain, Prince belatedly hoped they could be passed off as part of the rain.

"Quit fighting!" YuLian glared at them.

Lolidragon clicked her tongue and crossed her arms. "Fine, then. Look like your usual Princely self."

"I was doing that already," grumbled Prince as she shifted back into her position and watched as the photo critter flew around in a flurry of wings and clicking noises. After what seemed like hours, YuLian motioned for Prince and Gui to stop posing. With some difficulty, Prince detached the reluctant Gui from her back and hurried out from under the raining hose. It was only logical that a warrior's strength was exponentially greater than that of a bard's, but somehow Gui's unrivaled determination to stay glued to her always made him seem stronger than he actually was. She took the fluffy towel from Lolidragon and drew it across her face.

"I'm freezing," grumbled Prince as she rubbed the towel up and down her arms, attempting to subdue the goosebumps flecked across her skin. "Why don't we have a water heater?"

"It would cost money," replied YuLian from her seat next to Ugly Wolf.

_Why did I bother asking? _Prince rolled her eyes, but stopped once she noticed YuLian staring at her.

"Your highness, Prince," Gui suddenly cut in from behind her where he'd sneaked up. "If you are cold, then please, allow me to warm you!"

"...Are you sure you want to do that?" She glanced over her shoulder and tried to refrain from laughing at his exaggeratedly valiant expression, looking as if he was about to leap into a river of lava to rescue her from some horrific beast.

His pale cheeks began to glow with happiness and he nodded enthusiastically. Putting on a serious face, he spread his arms dramatically and dropped his towel on the wet ground. Lolidragon huffed at him and snatched it up with a scowl. He didn't seem to notice. "Yes, your highness! Please, allow my loving embrace, burning with the passion of my feelings for you, to bring your chilled body warmth again!"

Prince wasn't sure if she was happy or annoyed that his attitude hadn't changed after their meeting. His playful and goofy side was entertaining, to say the least, but she was starting to miss the calm, mature air he'd had at the coffee shop. Handing her damp towel back to Lolidragon she sighed and turned to Gui. He spread his arms wider as she stepped closer. His arms were shaking, from the cold and from his excitement, as she stopped in front of him. She smiled up at his expectant look and pulled her fist back. A few seconds later, he was launched in a graceful arc through the air, and he collided with the wall in a flurry of flailing limbs and surprised yelling.

"THE CLOTHES!"

Prince ignored YuLian's horrified scream and walked out of the door. Several minutes later, she was striding down the side of the street, feeling much warmer and drier now that she was changed out of the wet clothing for the photo shoot, and under the bright warmth of Second Life's sun. Gui was trailing along at her heels, sporting a bright purple bruise around his right eye.

"Where are we going?" he asked cautiously. She paused at an intersection and looked around for a moment. He silently watched her and then sighed. "Are you lost again?"

"No!" she yelled and shot an angry look at him. "I'm looking for someone! He just happens to be hiding very cleverly!"

Gui smirked and muttered, "Fine," as he inspected the people surrounding them. After a moment, Prince turned in a random direction and began walking again. When she had led them both down several more streets and somehow ended up near where they had just been, Gui paused on the street corner and sent her a look that was bordering on pity.

"Can't you just message whoever it is and get him to come to you?"

"Of course not!" she snapped. "I need the element of surprise!"

Realization settled on Gui's face and he chuckled. "Oh, I see now... You should try the cafe, he goes there a lot to flirt with the waitress."

"That moron," Prince frowned and glanced up and down the crowded street. "...Which way is it?"

"That way," Gui answered reluctantly as he pointed back the way they'd come. "But you probably should wait until he's somewhere else. Assuming he's there at all."

"Why?"

"You'll make a mess again, and we've already been yelled at by YuLian five times today."

"I'll do it neatly. One overturned table at most."

Gui gave her a disbelieving look as she took off past him at a quick pace. She skidded to a halt outside the cafe, having nearly passed it. Gui collided with her after her abrupt stop and she let out a triumphant chortle. Pressing herself against the side of the building, she peeked through the front window. Wu Qing was inside sitting leisurely at one of the tables facing away from them with several girls at his side. Wicked and Miwa were sitting across from him, both looking very uncomfortable as they tried to ignore their flirtatious friend.

"Damn!" Prince swore under her breath. "There are people in the way."

"I could call him out."

Prince glanced up at Gui's amused face. _I'm a bad influence on him._

"No," she looked back through the window. "I'll just jump over them. They won't get hurt too much if they get knocked over, or sprayed with a little blood, or something. Right?"

Gui shrugged as she pulled on her Masquerade mask. "Do you really think that is going to help you disguise yourself?"

"Of course. What good is a mask if it doesn't hide your identity?"

He sighed and patted her shoulder before walking several feet away. "Have fun, try to not make too much of a mess."

"You aren't coming with me?"

"I'm fine watching from here," replied Gui with a slightly queasy smile as he waved a hand at the large window.

She adjusted the mask on her face once more and unsheathed her thin sword. The black blade glittered in the sunlight as she casually rested it on her shoulder guard. "Afterward, let's go get tea. Okay?"

He blankly stared at her for a moment before laughing and nodding. Under his warm gaze, she turned on her heel and entered the cafe to murder her twin brother with a spring in her step and an elegant smile on her face.

* * *

_I was going to describe the following scene, but with all of the screaming and blood and chopped off limbs flying here and there, I decided to end it beforehand, and keep the rating at "T"...  
_


	5. Epilogue

_**Disclaimer –** 1/2 Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo._

_**Note –** I switched back to "he" for Prince, just to follow the story's pattern. It's set a couple years after chapter 4.  
_

_Please, everyone enjoy the final chapter of Tea for Two. It's been fun! :)_

* * *

The day was cloudy, dark, and somewhat cold. A light mist had begun to sprinkle down through the air, the blackening sky threatening to pelt rain down without warning on any unfortunate person who happened to be outdoors. The atmosphere matched the mood of the girl who didn't seem to notice as the weather took a turn for the worst while she crouched in the damp grass in front of a large mound of muddy dirt. Her eyes were devoid of their usual energetic gleam, her normally bright face was pale. She patted her left hand on the dirt pile, ignoring the fact that her palm was now filthy, and her slightly quivering lips slowly turned upward in a tiny smile. Her eyes drifted to the small headstone at one end of the pile and sadness flashed across her face. The weak smile disappeared as quickly as it had come.

"Gui," she called quietly over the steadily increasing rain, which was quickly soaking through her clothes. There was no answer aside from the low rumble of far-off thunder. "I really miss you." She sat silently in the grass for a few minutes until the rain was so thick that it was getting difficult to see anything. Reaching down beside her, she plucked a white flower off the ground and set it on top of the dirt mound before standing up. One more silent moment of staring passed.

"I'll come visit again," she promised, a pang of loneliness in her voice. Turning away from the grave, she looked up wearily to the slightly bored-looking person standing beside her under a large blue umbrella. He wordlessly handed her a towel to dry herself with and she took it gratefully, following him as they headed back the way they'd come. He glanced back at her periodically to make sure she didn't slip on the muddy path leading out of the small park. She was walking carefully enough to allow herself time to wipe the mud off her hand that had been left there from touching the recently-disturbed earth. She finally drew the soft cloth over the thin gold band with a diamond set in the top around her left ring finger. Her precious wedding ring. He knew she wasn't one for wearing much jewelry, but she made a point of keeping it on as much as possible. A nostalgic smile played across his mouth. She closely inspected the ring for any leftover dirt, and returned the towel to him.

Once they'd stepped back onto the deserted sidewalk, she paused outside the passenger-side door of a car parked alongside the curb and looked up into his face with a depressed expression. Her eyes searched for comfort in his. "I still can't believe he's gone. He was so young..."

His smile was replaced by an annoyed look, entirely devoid of sympathy for the deceased, and the rising urge to console her in some way, which had been rapidly gaining momentum since she looked at him so sadly, suddenly dissipated. He quickly opened the car door for her and coughed, trying to bite back his harsh words toward her behavior. He then said, with forced calm, "You say that as if you were expecting him to live for a hundred years."

She slipped inside and he shut the door after her before impatiently hurrying to the other side of the car, closing the umbrella, and climbing into his own seat. Once he'd started the car and had pulled out onto the road, he allowed himself a glance at her dismal face. He rolled his eyes at her dramatics. "With as much as you were feeding the poor guy, I'm surprised he even lasted as long as he did."

She looked at him in outrage. "What are you talking about? I barely fed him anything!"

"Stop lying. I saw you sneaking him meals every time you thought I wasn't watching. His stomach was so fat, it looked like it was going to explode. He couldn't even move around properly."

Her cheeks turned red at his words and she crossed her arms over her soaked shirt and looked away from him, out the window, watching the dreary buildings pass by outside the car. "H-he looked hungry! His face was so pitiful-"

"Lan..."

"What?"

"He only had one expression the entire time he was alive."

"Don't insult Gui!"

He began to feel torn between exasperation and hilarity at her stubbornness over the most bizarre things. "I'm not insulting him, I'm telling the truth. There are only so many facial expressions a goldfish can make." She didn't answer, but instead began to wring water out of her hair into a clean towel she'd taken from the back seat. He sighed in defeat. "Do you really have to be so torn up over it?"

He thought she was going to ignore him again, but she finally patted his arm in a reassuring way and smiled. "Don't worry. When you die, I'll be much more sad."

As he pulled the car to a stop at a red light, he stared at her in disbelief. _Are you really comparing me to a goldfish?_

She suddenly added as an afterthought, "And I'll bury you somewhere other than a park."

As he tried to decide if that was supposed to cheer him up, she tugged on his sleeve and pointed out the windshield. "Let's get another one on the way home!"

"...Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'll definitely keep him alive longer than three days, this time." She gave him a determined expression as if keeping a pet goldfish was some sort of challenge she had to overcome.

He pulled the car into the lot of the small strip mall she'd pointed out. Lan unbuckled her seat belt before he'd even had a chance to park. Before she could leap out of the car, he pressed an umbrella into her hands.

"Not that it will do much good, now that you're soaked from your little memorial service for 'Gui'," he smirked.

"How was I supposed to know it would suddenly start raining so hard?" she huffed and climbed out of the car, popping open the umbrella over her head.

_The giant thunderheads may have been a hint... _He grabbed his own umbrella and stepped outside, locking the car behind himself and followed her to the entrance of the pet shop. The automatic doors noiselessly slid open and Lan hurried inside, nearly running to the fish section where they'd been only days before. After a few moments, he had joined her, walking at a forcefully normal pace, and let his eyes wander over the numerous tanks of colorful fish.

"Can we not name it after me this time?"

"Why? I thought it was cute."

He glanced around for a shop clerk. "Well, I guess it was at first. But after days of you cooing my name at him while cramming him with fish food nonstop 'til he died... It was more creepy than cute."

"Geez, fine."

After several minutes of inspecting each tank of fish, a moment of laughing at the catfishes' "mustaches", and an unneeded trip through the rest of the shop to see the other animals, Gui and Lan were walking out of the pet shop, Lan holding a plastic bag of water with a large goldfish energetically swimming around inside. He hoped they wouldn't be back here in another few days, after digging another hole in the park. He wasn't sure why she wouldn't let him flush 'Gui' down the toilet, but they had instead ended up holding a lengthy funeral service for the goldfish out in the rain. Regardless of the annoyance he felt at having his day interrupted by a spontaneous session of vandalizing public property for the sake of a goldfish's grave, he was at least happy Lan didn't try to feed him like that. It was a complete mystery, one of many Gui had decided a long time ago to not dwell on, how she managed to stay to tiny and thin while she ate enough food for several dozen people.

Once they'd arrived home, Lan immediately disappeared into the living room with her new fish. As Gui put away the umbrellas and took the towels to the bathroom for washing, he decided to hide the canister of fish food somewhere Lan wouldn't be able to find. A moment later, he walked into the living room and found Lan leaning over the fish tank, chuckling to herself as she sprinkled an enormous pinch of fish flakes over the surface of the water. The goldfish was obliviously floundering around near the top of the tank, eating without any reservation.

Gui quickly walked up behind her and snatched the can of flakes out of her hand. "That's enough," he said as she turned to him with an indignant look. He glanced at the tank and watched several large flakes begin to sink underwater. "For several feedings..." he sighed. "What did you _just_ tell me in the car?"

"I'm sorry. Now, give those back." Lan latched onto his wrist and attempted to pry his fingers off the can.

"Only if you promise to stop feeding him so much."

"Okay, okay I promise," she whined. He slowly released his grip on the can and she triumphantly set it down beside the fish tank and put the lid back on top.

"I'm going to go work, don't feed him while I'm not in here."

"I won't."

"You can feed Meatbun all you want, later."

"I said I won't!" she snapped and stomped in the direction of the kitchen.

Gui watched her disappear around the corner before snatching up the fish food and running to the study. Once he'd hidden it behind some philosophy books he was sure Lan would never touch, he sat down at his desk with a tired groan. The majority of his precious Saturday had been spent on bizarre errands, rather than on the work he'd brought home with him the night before. He wouldn't have minded at all if he'd simply spent the time with Lan, in fact he would have much preferred to be with her than in his study writing lesson plans. But activities like digging holes in the dirt with a stick and arguing over cans of fish flakes were not on his list of favorite pass-times. Not that he had ever considered them for the position. With one more glance toward the open doorway, through which he could hear Lan starting on dinner, he opened his laptop and pressed the power button. He beat down the urge to join Lan in the kitchen as the computer whirred to life, and he stared at the loading screen feeling somewhat relieved at finally getting the chance to work.

That night, Gui slid into bed beside Lan and let his head drop onto his pillow with a tired yawn. His eyes hurt slightly from staring at a computer screen for so long, but he'd managed to get everything finished. He was filled with a firm resolution to spend tomorrow doing nothing. He turned to look at Lan and found her already fitting her Second Life game headset over her eyes excitedly as she shifted deeper into the blankets.

"Good night, see you in a minute!" she said and gave him a small kiss before promptly flopping down onto the bed and closing her eyes.

Gui was too tired to be very disappointed that she went to sleep so fast. Rather than moving to pick up his own headset, he watched her face relax almost immediately as she entered the game. Raising a hand, he pushed a bit of hair off her forehead, brushing his fingers over her soft skin. Kissing her once more and whispering good night, he reached over to his nightstand where his headset was placed. A restless shifting and quiet mumbling made him look back at Lan. Her face was scrunched up in a somewhat angry look, eyes clamped tightly shut.

"N-no... Get it... Birds..."

"Already?" With a smile and a sleepy sigh, he slipped on his headset and settled down, preparing himself for a fight as he closed his eyes.

Opening them a moment later, he blinked in the sunlight beating down on the spacious forest glade the Odd Squad had been training in the night before. He stood still, quietly listening and watching for any signs of the others. He didn't have to listen long before the sound of fighting reached his ears. With a wide smile of anticipation, he hurried into the trees toward where the noise was coming from and pulled out his guqin.

"Lolidragon, lure it to the south!"

"I'm trying! Stop distracting me!"

"Prince, stop moving so it'll follow her!"

"How am I supposed to stop moving when they're chasing me? I'll get trampled!"

"Idiot! You shouldn't have jumped out in front of it in the first place!"

"Shut up! I didn't know it was the boss!"

"Really? I knew right away."

"THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME!"

"The pattern on the boss's feathers looks-"

"I don't think now is a good time to explain, Doll..."

Gui came to a stop beside Ugly Wolf and watched as Prince tore through the trees at break-neck speeds as he tried to outrun a large amount of small, fluffy-looking ostrich-like creatures, as well as one that was easily three times as big as Ugly Wolf, swinging its large beak at him and wildly flapping its disproportionately small wings, one of which looked broken. Prince's agility wasn't enough to lose the large bird and its noisy minions as they bore down on top of him. He quickly dodged to one side and ran underneath a low-hanging branch. The bird, not being very intelligent, tried to follow and ran straight into the branch with its neck, which then let out an audible crack. The rest of the birds continued to chase Prince around the tree in a seething mass of feathers and chirping. The boss let out a hoarse, sputtering squawk as it stumbled backward in confusion, nearly tripping over the tree roots jutting out of the ground. Gui would have found the whole scene to be extremely amusing if his wife wasn't the target of the ridiculous-looking monsters.

It was still a bit funny, regardless.

Wondering how in the world Prince managed to get into so much trouble in so little time, Gui raised his guqin and aimed carefully as the bird angrily stomped around the tree looking for Prince, and shot. He scowled when it missed the target, and took aim once more, this time just barely hitting its knee. It did little damage, but he at least managed to draw its attention away from the search. As it stumbled to one side, Lolidragon dashed forward, in a blur seemingly passing it by without doing anything, but stopped a short distance away as she tucked her daggers into her belt. Blood began to spray out of several places on the bird's neck where she'd cut faster than Gui could see. Doll's summoned skeletons, which had been ambling about, trying and failing to keep up with Prince and the rest of the birds, finally caught up as Prince whirled around and began stabbing everything he could reach. They plowed through the group of mobs, flinging birds right and left. The air was quickly filled with feathers and blood as the birds began to scatter and run from the furious elf and his back-up skeleton forces. Once they'd all disappeared, Prince jumped at the boss and began chopping at its bloody neck as if it were a tree.

When it finally died, Prince wandered over to the group, looking thoroughly annoyed. Gui rushed up and began removing feathers from his hair. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Prince grumbled irritably, swatting away the feathers that were falling in his face.

"Next time, warn us before you run off to kill something," YuLian reprimanded. "If you hadn't yelled, we would have kept walking and never would have known something was wrong." She tapped the end of her magic staff on the ground and glared at him as Lolidragon strode up.

"He did pretty good for not having been blessed first," Ugly Wolf chuckled into the awkward silence.

"Don't encourage him!"

"S-Sorry."

Prince sighed and took off through the trees at a steady march. Gui sent a worried look toward YuLian's angry expression before hurrying after Prince. **"What happened?"** he asked Prince through the messaging system.

**"****Well, there was a bird..."**

Gui didn't need any more explanation than that. It was almost involuntary for Prince to attack a monster when he saw it, regardless of whether or not the rest of the team was able to help. Plus, Gui could see that the birds hadn't appeared very dangerous, though potentially so when in a large group as had been chasing Prince around.

As they reached the edge of the woods, Lolidragon hurried past Gui and fell into step beside Prince. He tried to ignore the rising discomfort as she looped her arm around Prince's and started dragging him along faster toward the gate of Infinite City across the field. The fact that they were both girls and only pretending wasn't enough to cancel out his possessive jealousy. It had been a very reluctant agreement between them that Gui would stop being so tenaciously obsessive with Prince. Since many people knew of Gui's identity in real life, they also knew about his marriage. To avoid any nosy people butting into Prince's secrets, whether they would accuse Gui of cheating on his wife with him, or if they put two and two together, he couldn't be as close with Prince as he had been. Unless no one besides their team was present.

"So?" Lolidragon chirped at Prince. "How's Gui doing?"

Gui was about to ask her why she wasn't just asking him, but Prince let out a long sigh and a faraway look settled on his face. "He died."

_Oh. That Gui._ His annoyance toward the fish was renewed.

Lolidragon gasped at Prince's words. Gui wondered if she was trying to cover up a laugh. She'd been the one who suggested naming the fish after him, and had unceasingly teased him about it. "What happened? You only just got him! Did you forget to feed him?"

Prince shook his head. "No, the opposite. I kind of fed him too much. A bit."

Lolidragon nodded knowingly as they finally reached the gate. "Hm. Sounds like something I'd do."

Before they'd gotten far into the city, Prince suddenly whirled around and pointed at Gui. "Don't follow us anymore." Lolidragon added a reinforcing nod.

Gui hesitantly glanced between the two. "But why?"

"Prince and I have some... business." Lolidragon cryptically winked at him and they both turned away without another word.

"Hey, wait!" Gui took a step forward, but stopped when Prince looked at him threateningly over his shoulder.

"I said don't follow!"

He watched helplessly as the two hurried down the street, much closer to one another than Gui would have liked, and out of sight. He wanted nothing more than to chase after them and shove Lolidragon away, but Prince had looked seriously annoyed, and somewhat nervous. He instead settled for screaming, **"KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY WIFE!"** over a private message to Lolidragon and stayed beside the rest of the team, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he stared intently at the spot where the two had disappeared. After a moment, he glanced up at Ugly Wolf.

"Hey, don't look at me. I don't know where they went," he said guardedly.

Gui sighed. "Fine..." He tried to think if he'd done anything to deserve yet another cold shoulder treatment from Prince. Nothing note-worthy came to mind. Rather, he thought he'd been behaving very well given the circumstances.

Ten minutes later, he finally was sent a private message. **"Gui! Go to the tower and wait for me upstairs. I'll be there soon."**

**"Okay," **Gui smiled and took off down the street. "See you guys later!" he belatedly called over his shoulder to the other three. They looked at him bewilderingly as he left them without an explanation. He quickly dashed through the streets, his eyes always fixed on the tower he could see rising over the tops of the buildings. A thought suddenly hit him and he abruptly stopped and glanced around in a paranoid manner. He relaxed slightly as he saw no one was staring at him in a suspicious way. Only the usual attentions were being sent his way from the other players nearby that were torn between wanting to stop and admire his looks and to hurry away from his strange behavior. **"Prince!"**

**"What is it? Did you lose your key again? I told you to keep-"**

**"No, I didn't lose it. But how am I supposed to get in there without being noticed?" **Gui had stopped going to the tower without the rest of the team for fear of someone seeing him, which would have been just as bad as if Gui were still chasing Prince around like before. Prince's fandom had already bothered them several times when they had been in there alone for extended periods of time. YuLian had warned him to stay away from there when he was by himself, unless he was positive no one would notice him going up to Prince's rooms.

Prince was silent for several minutes. He finally called back, **"Can't you just cover your head with your cloak, or something?"**

**"...I'm pretty sure that would only make me _more_ eye-catching. Someone would probably send the city guards after me for being a suspicious person near the city lord's chambers."**

**"Right. Well... How about you go with everyone else, and have them leave a few minutes later? YuLian should have some of Jing's illusion charms they can use so it'll look like you're leaving, too."**

**"Oh, good idea." **Gui switched to the party chat as he resumed his walk to the tower, feeling much more relieved now that he wasn't in danger of being murdered by the guards.** "Ugly Wolf, YuLian, Doll, where are you guys?"**

**"Heading to the tower,"** YuLian answered in a peevish tone, which Gui ignored. **"I have some paperwork to pick up."**

**"Perfect! Come be my backup!"**

**"...Your what?"**

Half an hour later, Gui was neatly folded atop one of the large cushions in Prince's room, hunched over the low table as he doodled on a piece of paper while he waited for Prince to arrive. Humming to himself, he added a large spear-like object to one side of his drawing, and then scribbled a large amount of flames blasting out the end. He quickly drew a small bird with an extremely distressed expression in the middle of the fire, and chuckled to himself. "Take that."

"Take what? What are you drawing?"

"AAH!" Gui jumped violently at the unexpected voice behind him and the hand on his shoulder. His knees hit the bottom of the table and he nearly upset his bottle of ink and cup of tea.

"WHAH?" Prince yelled in surprise at Gui's terrified reaction and whipped his hand away. "What the hell are you screaming for?"

Gui whirled around, his heart beating furiously. "Why are you sneaking up on me?"

Prince glared at him, breathing heavily and tightly clutching a small package to his chest. "I-I wasn't, you idiot! I called you over and over! It's not my fault you were so focused on... on that?" He paused and bent over Gui to look closer at the drawing. "What the..."

Gui glanced down at his paper and suddenly felt embarrassed. He had initially been drawing designs for improved canons to place on the city's walls. As his boredom grew, so did his additions to the drawing, which had somehow become a giant robot. He folded the paper over on itself, hoping Prince hadn't noticed he'd drawn Lolidragon underneath the robot's foot, and pushed it to one side. "Sorry," he muttered as he put the cap back on his ink.

"Geez, you're so inattentive," Prince grumbled as he lowered himself down next to Gui and put the package on top of the table. Gui looked at it for a moment before glancing questioningly back at Prince who was drinking the remainder of Gui's tea. Once he set the cup down, Prince put his hand on the package once more and pushed it a few inches toward Gui. "It's for you."

_So, that was his 'business' with Lolidragon..._ Gui's eyes widened happily as pulled it in front of himself and carefully loosened one end of the brightly colored paper that covered it.

"I know we agreed to not celebrate until next weekend, but I wanted to give it to you now, anyway." Prince's cheeks flushed as he watched Gui remove a small polished wood box out of the paper. It was their wedding anniversary tomorrow, but Gui had several days off at the end of the following week. They'd planned a small trip as the weather forecast had been nice, and had agreed to exchange presents then instead of on the actual day. Gui wasn't very surprised that Prince had been too impatient to wait until the agreed date.

Gui slowly undid the silver latch on the front of the box and lifted the lid. Inside, set on a black velvet cushion, sat a bow sight. He picked it up, his smile spreading even wider in surprise, and ran his fingers over the smooth device. Thin, twisting lines of some pale green material had been inlaid in the dark wood, and the attachment was much larger than that for a bow, wide enough to be placed on his guqin. He knew the accuracy and range bonuses would be of immense help when aiming and shooting.

"This is amazing," Gui delicately set the sight back in its box and smiled at Prince.

Prince nodded, looking extremely pleased that Gui had liked it. "I had it made specially since the shops only sell sights for bows."

Gui laughed as he finally realized why Prince had forcefully stolen his guqin a week ago and ran off, refusing to say why he needed it. He had been fairly certain Prince hadn't wanted to play it, or try to shoot it, but he couldn't think of any other uses for it besides those.

After Gui closed the lid again, he leaned over and tenderly kissed Prince's cheek. "Thank you."

Prince shifted closer to Gui and looked at him expectantly.

Gui stared at him, trying to keep his face straight. "We _did_ agree to wait until next week." As Prince frowned at him in disappointment, he laughed. "But," he said as he reached into the pocket of his vest and pulled out a tiny tube-shaped object wrapped in silver paper. "Here you go."

Prince's face brightened immediately as he took the present from Gui's hand and enthusiastically shredded the paper, carelessly throwing it on the floor as he inspected the small tube of wood he held. He twirled it around in his hands for a moment and stared at it, looking somewhat confused. He ran one finger over the small groove around the middle, and abruptly began to attempt to yank it in half. "How... How does this open?" he snarled as he pulled as hard as he could, the tube resisting his tugs and staying resolutely in one piece.

Gui, fearing for his gift's safety, grabbed Prince's hands and stopped him before it could break. He'd chosen a very sturdy wood for the container, but he knew Prince's absurd strength could probably crack it with enough force applied. "Turn it, don't pull."

"Oh." He twisted the halves in opposite directions, much more gently than before, and the pieces easily fell apart in his hands. He set them down and pulled a roll of heavy, white cloth out of the middle. Carefully unrolling it, he held it up by a corner with one hand and let the rest flutter from his fingertips. It was a lot larger than it had seemed rolled up in the tiny canister. Prince sent Gui an uncertain look. "You got me a handkerchief?"

"As if I'd do that. Put it on the table."

Prince smoothed it flat on the table and his mouth dropped open. He leaned forward to inspect it closer. A detailed blueprint of the city tower was in the middle of the cloth, and all of the surrounding houses within a certain distance were scattered around the edges in their respective positions. In the corner was a small compass telling the direction. 'Infinite City Central Tower' was scrawled across the top in tiny letters. Everything was colored as it would really be, with dusty grays for roads, small patches of green where there were grass and trees, and the wide range of oranges and browns of the roofs. "A map?"

"That's you," Gui said as he pointed at a small black dot directly in the center of the silky cloth, inside the gray circle that was the tower. "The map will show your location. It can also give you directions, and you can view things closer and farther away."

"How?" Prince started poking his dot. His eyes widened further as the diagram of the tower flashed to a different floor with every prodding. He switched it back to his room and looked up at Gui eagerly.

Gui shifted the map closer to himself and set both his index fingers on the cloth, and spread them apart until they were almost off the map. The buildings on the map suddenly got much larger, and some disappeared as they flew off the edges. As he slid his fingers together again, they resumed their original size. "That's how you zoom in and out. And to get directions, tell it where you want to go."

"Show destination: Infinite City Café," Prince said at once. A glowing red line appeared as the map zoomed out slightly to accommodate the distance, and it trailed across the bright fabric from the tower, through the tiny streets and to a building somewhere west of them.

"It also lets you look at other places if you just drag your finger across it, or say the name of the location. To make it return to your dot, just tell it to like before."

"This is so cool!" Prince said gleefully as he dragged his finger in circles, making the map go all over the place and the colors blurred into smudges as they flew past. He made it zoom out as far as it would go and ran his eyes over the map. "It has the entire continent!" After several more minutes of playing with it, he finally rolled it back up and returned it to the wood container. He carefully tucked it into his pouch. "That's definitely something I needed. The system map is so stupidly vague."

Gui hoped that Prince would at least get lost less frequently now. It would take more than a magic map to help Prince in that area, but it would also take a lot of effort to get lost with the map in hand. He had no doubts that Prince would somehow manage it. Gui had spent two weeks flying with Sunshine all over the continent, and another week with various magicians of the city who enchanted it for him as he carefully drew every part. It had been taxing, but he was certain he'd included nearly everything. He would have done all five continents if time had allowed.

"I'm glad you like it," Gui smiled as Prince hugged him tightly.

"It would have been better if you'd given me a cake or something, as well," Prince huffed into Gui's ear.

Gui pressed a kiss to Prince's warm neck and smiled at the familiar feeling. "Oh, really? How thoughtless of me."

Prince chuckled and slightly turned to face Gui. "Well, I suppose this is okay, too." His eyes closed as he leaned forward, closing the tiny space between them, and took Gui's lips repeatedly as he muttered, "As long as we get food, afterward."

"Fair enough."

All his negative thoughts over having to pretend all the time faded away as the comforting weight of Prince pressed against him. He could withstand whatever people threw at them. They didn't matter. Their words may knock him off his feet occasionally, but Prince would always be there to pull him up again and again, and murder whoever it was that pushed Gui over in the first place. After all, picking on Gui was Prince's job.

He slowly closed his eyes and felt Prince's hands pull at his clothing, their lips never parting. Soft noises sounded in his ears as each piece of cloth was scattered over the floor to join the shreds of wrapping paper from their presents. Gui trembled only for a moment as the cool air of the room assaulted his bare skin before the warmth of Prince's body heat enveloped him once more.

* * *

_Oh, the many uses of stamina potions...  
_

_Thank you, everyone who read! Your encouragement kept me going, even when I didn't wanna! You guys are awesome. ;D_


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